Medical Center Hospital officials hope to start its renovation and expansion of its Intensive Care Unit in March.
If all goes as planned, it would take about 18 months to complete. Medical Center Hospital received a $3 million grant from the FMH Foundation recently.
Vice President of development of Medical Center Health System Alison Pradon said this is likely the first time the ICU has been revamped.
“There’s a lot more equipment that goes in there now,” Pradon said.
The renovation would increase the beds from 40 to 50 and modernize it.
“What it would do is convert some of our rooms into universal care rooms, which is basically a step-down unit from our ICU so the patients that don’t necessarily need that one-on-one critical care would go to the step-down unit where they’re still getting the higher level of care,” Pradon said.
“For example, if someone is on a ventilator maybe it’s 2 to 1 nurses to patients so it opens up those more critical patient beds that are needed for surgery patients (or) trauma patients,” she added.
Pradon said the hospital doesn’t currently have a step-down unit.
“Step-down beds provide an intermediate level of care for patients with requirements somewhere between that of the general ward and the intensive care unit,” the National Library of Medicine website said.
MCHS had to apply for the FMH grant.
“We were over the moon when we received the funding. It’s a very large capital campaign project. We’re working on fundraising for this, and of course the behavioral health facility, so we’re very excited to receive this gift. We’re just getting started on our fundraising journey for this and so starting with this substantial of a gift is very exciting and very promising,” Pradon said.
Their plan is to start in March.
“It’s a $32 million project right now. Of course with construction costs that could always increase and fluctuate,” Pradon said.
That includes $25.9 million for construction and $6.1 million for recruiting and staffing.
Pradon added it stays at capacity most of the time.
“We’ve had to go on diversion a lot just because we are so full. I believe we’ve had to go on diversion about 58 percent of the time this year to date, so a little bit more than half the year. I think with the new unit, our critical care beds and moving to those universal care beds … we’re going to see the same number of people, but I think we’re going to be able to provide better care and be on diversion less for those critical care patients because we will have that step-down unit,” Pradon said.
Current plans are for the renovation to take about 18 months. Pardon said they plan to phase in the construction and use some of the hospital’s underutilized areas during the construction phase.
The hospital is starting to promote the capital campaign to the public.
“We have a few more grants pending,” Pradon said. “We wanted to get some funds behind the project before we pushed it out to the public, so you will be seeing different advertisements and mailers and everything go out.”
She said people can donate at mchsfoundation.org
Pradon stressed that if you are a local resident or in an outlying county, MCH doesn’t want you to have to go to Dallas or Amarillo for care.
“We want you to be as close to home as possible where your family and friends and support system can come and be with you through the time because ICU is never going to be a quick and easy recovery,” Pradon said.
She noted that the hospital has been a partner with the FMH Foundation for a couple of years.
The FMH Foundation was established in 2011 by Florence Marie Hall to continue her legacy of giving back to her beloved West Texas. The Foundation was created to “foster collaboration, innovation, creativity, excellence, synergy, and development” with the focus on healthcare, performing and visual arts, and community and cultural endeavors.
The FMH Foundation makes grants to charitable organizations located in the Permian Basin geographical area of Texas. To date, the FMH Foundation has provided over 700 grants to over 140 agencies.
In 2014, the Foundation received the Outstanding Foundation Award from the Permian Basin Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. In 2015, the Arts Council of Midland honored the Foundation with the Community Partner Award.
The original Board members were F. Marie Hall, Laura Buckner, Dr. Eileen Piwetz, Ray Poage and Dr. Glenn A. Rogers. They were later joined by Laura McCabe and Tevis Herd.
“We are very thankful for their partnership. We’re very thankful for their commitment to healthcare in the Permian Basin and I really just think we’re going to continue to make big things happen in Odessa with their support and with support of others like them,” Pradon said.
