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Home > Blogs > West Chester News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > April > 29 > Entry
Inside West Chester Medical Center
If you’ve been anywhere near the Interstate 75/Tylersville Road interchange in the past year, you’ve seen the progress at West Chester Medical Center. Much of the external finish and windows are installed, and the 400,000 square foot hospital is beginning to look something like what it will when finished in early 2009.
The Health Alliance’s page has a lot of information on the new hospital, but I wanted a closer look at the center. The folks behind the construction were kind enough to take me on a tour of the facility today, and I can say one thing without a doubt:
That’s one big building.
Check tomorrow’s Journal News and Thursday’s Pulse-Journal for my story on the tour. In the meantime, we’ll have a photo gallery posted later today, and here are some of my impressions of the first new hospital built in the area in decades.
First, did I mention West Chester Medical Center is big? The tour I took today with director of plant operations Mike Kuechenmeister lasted nearly three hours as we covered the hospital from top to bottom.
The six-story building has a lot of subtle curves and arcs that don’t show themselves until you’re up close. Once complete, the hospital will have several unique visual features, such as gardens, a reflecting pool and a fountain tucked into its structural curves. It will definitely be best appreciated from up close, a theme I have to lift my hat to on behalf of the patients who will be staying there.
New-from-scratch hospitals don’t happen every day, and Kuechenmeister and hospital public relations and marketing manager Stephanie Savicki said that gives them a chance to do things “just right” in the new construction. The emergency bay, which has an ambulance dock big enough for five vehicles, was designed with input from West Chester Fire Department about the dimensions and needs of their ambulances. Likewise, Kuechenmeister showed me how each room’s gas, water and electrical systems can be accessed by removing as few wall panels as possible, reducing the chance of something nasty being spread through the walls.
The technology that will keep the hospital running provided one “wow” moment after another. I’ll detail some of the energy-saving tech in today’s Living Green blog post, but one the systems that impressed me most was in the power department. If one or both of the electrical lines from Duke Energy were to go down, the hospital has two diesel generators, each the size of a semi truck, that could keep power running for 96 hours to the nine operating theatres, 11 elevators, 160 patient rooms and the ancillary services that are expected to treat up to 40,000 patients a year.
There will be a lot more news coming out of the West Chester Medical Center between now and their planned opening in spring 2009. If you get a chance to tour the facility, take it. It’s far from done, but what’s already there is impressive, indeed.
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