by Paul W. Sullivan, Montgomery Advertiser
Jackson Hospital will begin construction this summer on a new surgery center and a state-of-the-art imaging center.
The hospital’s decision to expand was driven by increased demand for surgeries as well as growth in the Montgomery area, said Peter Frohmader, director of marketing.
The hospital’s current surgery unit is running at near full capacity, with about 1,200 surgeries performed each month, he said.
Jackson Surgery Center will add six operating rooms to the hospital’s current 19 suites.
The 27,000-square-foot surgery complex mainly will be used for outpatient or same-day surgery, he said. Moving more of those operations to the new center will allow longer or more complicated surgeries to be performed in the main hospital complex.
Also, the new facility will increase the number of Jackson Hospital’s endoscopic operating rooms from 11 to 15, and the center will add 24 recovery areas.
The hospital also will construct a new 13,000-square-foot imaging center.
Both centers will open in 2008, Frohmader said.
Jackson Imaging Center will offer cutting-edge equipment providing CT scans, ultrasounds and X-rays.
Frohmader said having both of the new centers separate from the main hospital will make appointments easier for patients and more private since the imaging center will have separate entrance and exit areas.
Frohmader declined to comment on either the final cost of the expansion or how many new jobs it might create, although he said new jobs definitely would accompany the hospital’s growth.
Since 1946, Jackson Hospital has grown from three small frame houses to a modern health-care system encompassing 13 blocks. Behind the multiple-building complex, more than 350 physicians and 1,300 nurses and staff care for more than 150,000 patients annually.
Today, the hospital is a 344-bed regional care center with comprehensive medical and surgical health care services. Those services include a heart center, the McGough Oncology Unit, an orthopedic and joint center, a mother and baby center, comprehensive pediatric services and 24-hour emergency services.
*Hattemer, Hornsby, and Bailey, P.C (HHB) is the MEP consultant for both the new surgery and diagnostic imaging centers.