BY JILL NAGY
Some $25 million worth of renovations
and upgrades at Glens Falls Hospital will
concentrate on “creature comforts,” like
heating, cooling, elevators and an upgraded
lobby for outpatients, according to Ron Zimmerman,
vice president for planning, operations
and support services at the hospital.
“Our director refers to it as the ‘non-sexy
stuff,'” Zimmerman said.
He divided the work into “three flavors.”
Some of the work was started in 2014, is continuing
into 2015, and should be completed
in the next few weeks. That includes better
humidity control in some of the operating
rooms and a computer-regulated heating
and cooling system. The new systems will
allow hospital personnel to respond quickly
to problems, he said.
Flavor two is a group of special one-time
capital projects. Design work for those is almost complete and they will probably go to
bid in April, with work starting in May. The
major project in that category is renovation
of the hospital’s west lobby, the area used
by outpatients.
The third group of projects will begin
this year and some will carry over into
2016. Those include Phase II of operating
room humidity control project, this phase
concentrating on the day surgery rooms.
There will also be major work on the exterior
of the building, including roof and
window replacements. The elevators, most
of which are more than 30 years old, will
also be modernized. In addition, there will
be more work on heating, air conditioning
and pressure systems in the 110-year-old
building.
Plans also call for replacement of the
hospital’s laptop computers, some of which
are 15 years old, and other information technology
improvements, new patient beds and
mattresses, and a new interventional radiation
radiology suite for minimally invasive
medical procedures.
If there is a common thread to the
planned improvements, it is “everything is
to put the patient first,” Zimmerman said.
Funding for the work will come from
current operating revenue, a small operating
surplus from 2014, and a foundation
fundraising campaign now underway. In the
past, the hospital has borrowed money for
capital expenses and, Zimmerman said, they
may do so again for this work. The hospital’s
board of governors approved the planned
improvements at a January meeting.
The main Glens Falls Hospital campus
includes an 800,000-square-foot building.
Some 26 off-campus sites provide primary
care, rehabilitation services, laboratory
and imaging services. The hospital draws
its patients from Warren, Washington, and
Saratoga counties and a small portion of
northern Rensselaer County.
Photo by Todd Bissonette Photography