She said the main goal of the project, which began in April, is to provide better access to outpatients and those with limited mobility by improving the hospital’s drop-off and discharge process.
The hospital’s improved entrance, officially opened to the public on Monday, has a cover to protect patients from the elements and has automatic sliding doors to improve wheelchair access. Once the registration area is completed, Houseman said, it will allow patients to enter and register in the same place.
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Currently, outpatients must register in the emergency department, which is a set of stairs or elevator ride down. By adding a registration area next to the entrance, it will better separate outpatients from those that require more immediate medical treatment, Houseman added.
“It will leave our emergency department entrance for the critical patients,” she said.
Most of the project was funded by donors, said Nanette Bentley, a spokeswoman for Mercy Health. She said they raised $800,000. In addition to the front entrance and registration area, the project included renovating the hospital’s chapel as well as adding a gift shop.
Those improvements come as Mercy Health works to update and expand several services offered at its Urbana Hospital. Earlier this year, a mammography device as well as a DEXA scan bone mineral density unit, which tests for osteoporosis, was added to the hospital. Those pieces of equipment and a few minor renovations were part of a $500,000 project that was completed in September.
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Two other projects are slated to be completed early next year including one that will add new flooring and furniture for same day surgical services. It is expected to cost $100,000, said Houseman.
The other project will be focused around doubling the amount of space dedicated by the hospital to its cardiac rehabilitation services. With that project slated to begin this month, Houseman said it will cost upwards to $250,000. She said it will also add a kitchen area for cooking classes as well as equipment and other programming geared towards an intensive cardiac rehab program.
The hospital also completed a $3 million renovation and service expansion that began in 2017. It included a 10-bed senior behavioral health unit, the doubling of MRI services and internal renovations to modernize the Urbana medical campus, which was built in 1950.
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