The leadership of Mercy Health joined Urbana officials to break ground on Thursday on a new front entrance to Urbana Hospital, located at 904 Scioto St.
The entrance will be covered and have automatic sliding doors – allowing for protection from the elements and improved wheelchair access. Construction will start at the end of April and be complete by the end of September.
Currently, outpatients must register in the emergency department, which is a set of stairs or elevator ride down from the front entrance. This new entrance will allow patients to enter and register in the same place and better separate outpatients from critical patients.
“We are thrilled that, thanks to people we are going to honor today, we are able to begin construction for a new front facade that will protect our patients from the weather,” said Urbana Hospital President Jamie Houseman during the groundbreaking ceremony. “It will separate our outpatient flow from the emergency department, allow for our critical patients to be tended to in the emergency area.”
Houseman said that the new entrance would be a significant improvement for the hospital. Treasurer Rick Finkbine said that the $900,000 project had already received $800,000 in contributions, including over $50,000 from employees of the hospital. McCall Sharp Architecture designed the entrance and Link Construction will build it.
These latest improvements at the hospital follow 2017’s $3 million renovation and service expansion project that included:
– Building a 10-bed senior behavioral health unit.
– Recruitment of an orthopedic surgeon and two general surgeons, which has led to a significant increase in surgery volumes.
– Doubling of the MRI service capability from two to four days weekly.
– Internal renovations to modernize the facility.
