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  • Benjamin Bullard/The cullman Times Professional office building III, shown Wednesday morning, is nearing completion on the Cullman Regional Medical Center campus. Benjamin Bullard

    Projects progress

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February 4, 2010

Projects progress

POB III nears completion on CRMC campus, ER expansion to follow

By Benjamin Bullard The Cullman Times

CULLMAN — As one major capital project winds down, another is beginning at Cullman Regional Medical Center (CRMC).

Final stages of construction on professional office building III at CRMC, coupled with the onset of new construction to expand the emergency room, has the hospital’s board of directors asking for patience as visitors experience minor inconveniences related to traffic rerouting and construction barriers.

The CRMC board of directors reviewed progress on the projects at its monthly meeting Tuesday, noting that the temporary overlap of two major construction projects will complicate the normal flow of traffic around the hospital campus.

Board members said they will remain diligent in communicating the effects of the changes to both the public and hospital staff, and emphasized the positive impact they expect the projects to have on CRMC services when completed.

"These projects give us the opportunity to continue expanding our services, and it opens the way for CRMC to continue providing the highest quality service and  medical care," said board chairman David McKoy.

"We are grateful to our visitors and employees for their patience and understanding in negotiating some of the inconveniences they may encounter as they travel by car around the hospital campus. We want everyone to understand that this is good growth that will have tremendous long-term benefits."

The 53,000 square-foot building, which broke ground last March, is scheduled to open April 1. Cullman Primary Care will own the building and house its main offices there. CRMC holds the property lease on the building. The hospital plans to use a portion of the new facility to expand its sleep disorders center by housing 12 private sleep study suites there.

An enclosed, climate-controlled crosswalk will attach POB III to the main hospital building. The building will have a dedicated parking lot that will add 265 spaces, as well as a patient dropoff area. The construction team of Robins & Morton and Brad Eidson, which also built POB I and II, are contractors on the new $13.5 million facility.

No sooner will construction wind down on POB III than work will begin in earnest on an expansion to the emergency room. Construction is slated to begin March 1 on the project, which is funded in part from $6.5 million raised in a capital fundraising campaign that wrapped last year.

According to reports provided by the CRMC marketing staff, the existing facility was designed to accommodate 19,000 patients annually, but has typically received closer to 30,000 on average. The hospital’s acquisition of Woodland Medical Center last year has raised the annual average closer to 40,000.

The ER expansion, which should raise the total emergency room space to 13,480 square feet, is slated to increase the size of the ER by approximately 66 percent. The number of beds in the ER will increase from 18 to 24, while the existing emergency room department will also be renovated.

Access to the emergency room will be temporarily reconfigured during construction, with ER patient parking moved to the front of the hospital and pedestrian access through the hospital’s main door.

In preparation for the expansion, the hospital has also recruited a new team of board-certified, residency trained emergency medicine physicians to staff the CRMC emergency department.



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.

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