RiverView Hospital is set to open Sunday with the current patients moved from the old building into their rooms in the new building. The clinic will open on Monday morning.
RiverView’s Chief Operations Officer Chris Bruggeman said everyone is busy and excited about the move. “A very busy place right now,” said Bruggeman. “Our moving company has shown up today. We’re getting moving supplies into the departments and getting ready for the big move over the weekend. In-patients will get move on Sunday and then our new clinic and main entrance will open on Monday.”
Many of the new controls were being tested this week. There are many secured areas that require key fobs to access including the maternity area. Additionally, patients have controls for most things in their room at their bed, and families can alert nurses if they need anything without leaving the room. “We had a lot of members of our team provide input into the process early on, and the patients always been the focus,” said Bruggeman. “So, a lot of controls within the in-patient room can be done right from the bed – lights, tv, shades. There is a lot of controls for family members within the room to request things the patients need like water, a warm blanket, or etcetera. The upgrades in our patient rooms are just phenomenal.”
The clinic has several features such as care areas for the staff between the rooms, consultation rooms, and additional rooms for some other basic hospital functions that will reduce the number of patients having to cross the hospital campus. “For the convenience of the patient, we wanted to integrate the lab draw, so we’re not having to send patients across the campus for the lab for such a thing,” said Bruggeman. “Then, also, some x-ray function – chest x-ray, maybe a suspected broken bone or a sprain. We can get you into an x-ray right adjacent to the clinic rather than have patients walk down to imaging. Again, one of the focuses was to get our clinics consolidated and try to have the patient not have to move about our campus as much as they have in the past.”
With the move, the old building will be mostly decommissioned explained Bruggeman. “Right now, we still have some office spaces on the ground floor of the old building,” said Bruggeman. “Both the second and third floor, our plan is to decommission those spaces, so they won’t be used. Then, hopefully, sometime down the road we’ll be able to demo those spaces.”
Bruggeman also wanted to remind patients and the community to follow signs to the new main entrance beginning Monday. “With our opening on Monday, I want the community and patients to know to come to our new main entrance,” said Bruggeman. “You access that by (Old) Highway 75, then follow the signs. We have great new signage to help direct you to our new facility. We are excited to get it open to the community.”
