The Salem Township Hospital Board is moving forward on renovation of the vacant A-wing.
Hospital President Alex Nazarian announced at Tuesday’s meeting that BSA Architects of Indianapolis has been hired to design the clinical space.
“We would have our Quick Care, we will have a Primary Care Clinic which is a new service that we are developing. We would have our Behavior Health Clinic and probably Surgical Clinic move from downstairs up. So the three clinics would be current, existing services and Primary Care would be a new service at the hospital.”
Nazarian says all of the inside walls from the former inpatient area will be gutted and replaced with a very modern design. Another portion of the project will be to raise the parking lot next to A wing so patients do not have to climb stairs to enter. Nazarian reports BSA will also develop cost estimates for the facility. He has already started working with the Farmers Home Administration on funding. While he has no goal of when the project may get underway, once it does he anticipates completion in about a year. The A-wing has been vacant several years since the new inpatient wing opened.
The hospital board awarded a $90,000 contract to Shores Builders of Centralia to prepare a site for visits from a mobile trailer that will house a state of the art PET scan used to monitor tumors for cancer patients.
“These are extremely heavy devices so it needs to have a strong footing, be level and then it uses very high voltage electric lines. So we have to install transformers, high voltage lines and everything. So it’s a very complicated process.”
Nazarian hopes the service will be available by the end of the year. The mobile unit is owned by Shared Medical Services. Nazarian says a survey of area doctors has shown a need for the service.
The new emergency room entrance is now 99-percent complete with staff now utilizing the new office space. However, patients cannot yet utilize the new entrance until the Illinois Department of Public Health completes their inspection.
