During the many months the major North Tower construction project has been underway at The Villages Regional Hospital, employees and volunteers have been hard at work as usual, pursuing their various rounds — nursing, physicians and therapists, radiology, cancer care, the gift shop, the snack bar, etc. Despite the occasional rat-tat-tat of hammers outside, the quality of patient care has not been disrupted. Ambulances arrive and depart; multi-passenger golf-cart shuttles ferry patients and visitors to and from the parking lots and the heliport is in full operation.
A road near the facility has been blocked as needed by construction crews — to protect pedestrians and traffic from the huge cranes working overhead. Directional signs and personnel have averted any potential confusion finding hospital parking and accessing neighboring businesses as well. The parade of cement mixers, flatbed trucks and other delivery vehicles, hauling oversized air conditioning units, tanks and other equipment, have also require a wide berth…but that’s all good.
As many Villagers have noticed, the complex project is progressing astonishingly fast. A large crane is still up and running, and much of the exterior is nearing completion. Colorful layers of insulation, installed over the steel and aluminum skeleton, are being covered by masonry. Some bank customers and passersby have voiced admiration at how well all the simultaneous operations are synchronized.
Villages resident, Don Hahnfeldt, chairman of the Central Florida Healthcare Alliance, is pleased the weather has not impeded the builders’ progress.
“Although we are in the height of the hurricane season,” Hahnfeldt said, “we have had no major weather event to delay construction. We have also had outstanding cooperation of our partners and neighbors around The Villages Regional Hospital construction site to support the scheduled opening of the North Tower in the spring.
Hahnfeldt outlined three planned phases of TVRH North Tower Project. Phase I, which is currently under construction, will provide 65 additional patient care beds — a new intensive care unit (ICU) and medical/surgical floors. Planned completion is February 2015.
Phase II, which will commence shortly. will include 36 new Emergency Department / Observation (ED/OBS) beds, five new operating suites and five new procedure rooms. Plans are for this addition to open next fall (2015).
Phase III, is the recently ACHA-approved 22-bed rehabilitation unit in the North Tower, scheduled to open in the spring of 2016.
The population of The Villages and surrounding areas continues to grow, putting more and more pressure on healthcare providers in the Orlando-to-Ocala corridor. This expansion will help supply needed acute patient services close to home.