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Photo by Clark Enerson Partners
Conceptual drawings of five-story tower
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Photo by Clark Enerson Partners
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Photo by Clark Enerson Partners
Overhead drawing
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Plans for a major expansion of the Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte are moving out of the concept stage toward reality. The ambitious plan would enlarge the west part of the building to a five-story structure. The board of directors is weighing the needs of the hospital for the next 40 years, chairman David Pederson said. The medical center officially opened in 1975 and the original heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems will be 40 years old by the time the new $75 million building opens. The new tower, as hospital officials call it, would have single patient rooms and dedicated floors, or wings, for medical patients, surgical patients, pediatrics and behavioral health. One patient per room will take care of privacy concerns, control the danger of infections and allow more room for family members who visit, said Pederson and Great Plains CEO Greg Nielson. Today’s standards for single patient rooms are nearly as big as the double rooms currently used at the hospital. Nielsen said. Also, the renovation will improve efficiency, placing emergency rooms, operating rooms and catheterization labs in close proximity to x-ray labs and inpatient units, Nielsen said. Pederson said the board has not officially okayed the plans but the hospital website was updated Wednesday to sound like plans are set. A dream “will come true when GPRMC's new tower opens in three years,” the website says. “Already work has started to prepare staff for transitioning to the new tower." Pederson said Tuesday he doesn’t want to get the cart ahead of the horse. “We might not do anything,” he said. The expansion is in the planning stages and it is based on board approval, which has not been granted, Great Plains public relations and marketing director Patrick Curry said Wednesday. If construction begins, it would likely kick off early in 2013, last more than 2 years and cost around $75 million. Nielsen said officials are checking into 30-year bonds to finance the expansion. He said the hospital’s annual income amounts to nearly $150 million a year. Acute Care Nursing Director Traci Hoatson said on the hospital's website that "over the last two years, we've started putting a structure in place to support a decentralized nursing model. That pre-work includes bedside reports, which involve the patient and family in the plan of care; hourly rounding, which addresses patients' comfort and safety needs; and mid-shift huddles, since central nurses' stations will not be a part of the new tower.” All in all, it’s “a more patient-centered practice model," Hoatson says. As many as 150,000 outpatients and inpatients are served at Great Plains each year, according to its website. The current capacity is 116 beds. Six hundred and fifty babies are born and 4,500 surgeries conducted in a typical year at Great Plains. There are currently 800 employees.
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