RCH Construction Update Winter 2006

What is cold steel today will become a warm home
for newborn babies and surgery patients by Spring 2007

Construction on Redlands Community Hospital's new $47 million, three-story building addition is progressing rapidly, both on schedule and on budget. Steel workers and welders are busy throughout the large framed structure, which appears to compete in size with the existing five-story tower built in 1985.

The steel framed awning protrudes from the east side of the building frame. One can now start to visualize the new driveway entry where expectant mothers in labor will arrive in anxiety, ready to give birth, and where surgery patients will be dropped off to enter for surgery. The first floor will be home to a new Surgery Center with the latest technology. The second and third floors will be used for Maternal/Child Services, including labor, delivery, Cesarean section surgeries, patient rooms for postpartum mothers to recover after childbirth, a newborn nursery and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for babies requiring specialized care.

Steel workers work diligently to attach the awning, which when completed will give the hospital a totally new look along the front.

The two stairwells are visible at both the north and south ends of the building framework. Four elevator shafts are located on the south end of the building, closest to the existing hospital facility. Two elevators will be used by visitors, and the other two elevators will be reserved for transporting patients and staff.

The new building will be completed by Spring 2007. After the Maternal/Child Services department moves into the new building, the second floor of the existing hospital structure will be converted into additional patient rooms for Medical/Surgical Services. After the hospital's surgery department relocates to the first floor of the new building, the current surgery space will become available for other hospital services to expand.

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE