The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON – When renovation of Dayton General Hospital is complete next year, the main entrance to the facility will be on the north side of the building, near the former emergency room entrance. That side of the building is a construction zone now, but one can begin to visualize the circular driveway entrance that will soon be in place.

During a tour of the construction late last month, hospital officials described the work underway in Phase 1 of the renovation project, which includes constructing a new pharmacy department, a new gift shop area, laying out of the new entrance area and, perhaps most significantly, construction of a new, much larger physical therapy department, and the addition of an aquatic therapy pool.

The wing that formerly housed Booker Annex has been gutted and a new gym for the P.T. department is well under way. According to Columbia County Health Systems CEO Shane McGuire, the gym will be about 1½ times the size of the current one. Adjacent to the new gym will be seven new private rehabilitation rooms.

The only expansion of the hospital footprint in the entire renovation project is the addition of the therapy pool. The foundation walls for the pool have been poured and a new self-contained unit will soon be lowered into place. The pool area will then be enclosed.

When CCHS's P.T. department is fully staffed after the move, four full-time physical therapists, plus a speech therapist and an occupational therapist are expected to be working. Construction of the new rehabilitation department, including the gym and therapy pool is expected to be complete by year-end.

Work is also well underway on the new hospital pharmacy. McGuire said that the state health department and state pharmacy board still need to inspect and approve the new facility before the pharmacy staff moves in. The hospital pharmacy will continue to be operated by staff from Dayton's Elk Drug.

While the new circular entrance area to the hospital should be completed before the end of the year, patients and visitors will continue to enter into the building at the old main entrance, which is also the emergency entrance. Construction for Phase 2, beginning early next year will continue on the north side of the building.

Courtesy Photo

This image provided by the architects for the Dayton General Hospital renovation shows the rehabilitation and pharmacy departments that will take place in the hospital after completion of Phase 1 of the project.

Upon completion of Phase 1, the former P.T. area will be set up as a temporary dining room, while the existing kitchen and dining facilities are renovated as part of Phase 2. The imaging department will also be renovated and expanded as part of the second phase. New CT scanning equipment will be installed as part of that phase. Phase 2 is expected to be completed in March 2017.

Phase 3, to begin next spring, will see completion of the main interior entrance area and the new medical lab facilities. The new lab will be built in the former P.T. area after the dining facility moves back to its renovated space. The new main entrance area on the north side of the building will open at the end of Phase 3, sometime next summer.

Phase 4 will see the completion of the new emergency entrance, near the current main entrance. A new emergency room waiting area with an expanded nurses' station will also be built. The recently modernized and expanded emergency facilities will remain in their current location.

The hospital renovation project is being funded by a $5.5 million bond that was narrowly approved by voters in November, 2014. Groundbreaking on the project took place at the beginning of july.