HOW WILL WE DO THAT?

Over the months since we started the building project, the questions from the community have changed slightly. In the beginning the most frequent questions centered on when we would get started. Once we got started, questions have focused on how the project is progressing and what the estimated completion date is. For the record, the answer to those questions are that the project is on, or slightly ahead of, schedule. There are still many things that could affect the completion date, but the efforts of the Project Superintendents for Hutton Construction have been very impressive as they coordinate the efforts of various subcontractors. Most days we have somewhere in excess of 100 workers on site, so coordination of their efforts is no small task. Present projections indicate that construction will be complete sometime early next summer. The building is enclosed now (although some of the doors are not in place, so there are temporary wooden coverings over them), and there is heat inside, allowing work to continue despite the cooler temperatures. Parts of the outside of the building are “tented” with plastic, with temporary heaters actually heating the exterior surfaces. This allows the masons to continue brickwork and installation of the stucco-like insulated finish on the exterior walls. If you haven’t already seen them, there have been aerial videos shot from a drone periodically, showing progress from the outside of the building. The most recent one is posted on our website, www.scmhks.org. It is also on our Facebook page.

More recently, we are hearing questions about how the actual move from the current facility to the new one will be accomplished when the new building is finished. As you can imagine, this will be a complicated process. As any of you who have moved from one home to another can attest, the moving process is neither easy nor instantaneous. Moving a hospital is somewhat more complicated, because we simply cannot, by law, operate in two locations. So when the date is final that we will make the move, it will need to happen quickly. For that reason, even though the move is still six or eight months away, we have begun the serious process of planning it. We began by creating a list of which equipment will be purchased new for the new facility, which equipment will move from the old facility to the new, and which equipment will not move. Some of this decision making actually began as the building was planned, because some major equipment that will be replaced is included in the financing of the building project. Much of the imaging equipment, for example, is being replaced with new, upgraded equipment. We will have a new, faster, more technologically updated CT scanner. The X-ray room itself and all of the equipment, including the portable X-ray machine, will be completely replaced with new digital equipment. All of the equipment in the kitchen will be new. But other equipment, such as most of the Laboratory instruments, will be moved from the present building to the new one. Obviously, we can’t afford to be without the ability to perform lab tests for any length of time, so that equipment will have to move quickly. We have begun consultation with moving companies that specialize in moving facilities such as ours. We have begun discussions with folks at other hospitals that have recently relocated with the completion of building projects. We want to pick their brains to learn what they did right and what we can do better. All of the department managers have begun meeting on a regular basis just to plan the move process. We will have an on-site visit very shortly with at least one of the moving  contractors so they can begin to see how much equipment, furniture, and supplies will need to be moved. We don’t have all the answers yet about exactly when or how we will accomplish the move. But we have begun the planning process, and will continue to fill in the lists, charts, and other planning documents as we get closer. Our sincere hope and plan is that well before we are ready to move, we will have the move planned so that it can actually occur without interruption of service. We will continue to update you as the plans develop. I know the excitement is building. Trust me, the public is no more excited about the prospect than all of the staff at SCMH. But we have great staff, and they’ll work hard to make it happen.

This is the last newsletter for this year. I want to take this opportunity to wish all of the members of the community, as well as the staff of SCMH and their families a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!