A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2015
COMMUNITY
SPACE:
continued from page A1
struction. Many of the
people were surprised
to see the number of im-
provements being made
to the facility.
When finished, the
expansion will feature
the addition of two new
750-square-foot surgical
suites and the partial con-
struction of two addition-
al suites, which will be
completed and outfitted
in the coming years. The
new suites will connect
to a hallway that includes
15 additional day-surgery
patient rooms.
Kricket
Nicholson,
executive director of the
Umatilla-Morrow United
Way, said she was thrilled
to see that, by adding
those two extra surgical
suites, the hospital was
preparing for its future.
“It’s smart to plan
ahead so when you ex-
pand in the future, you
will already have all of
this in place,” she said.
The expansion also in-
cludes the construction of
a central utility plant be-
hind the hospital, which
will house state-of-the-
art vacuum pumps, cen-
tral air, water softeners
and more. The building
will be connected to the
main hospital via an un-
derground tunnel, which
has pipelines for electric-
ity, medical gases, steam
for sterilization and data
lines for the hospital
computer system.
“This is really neat,”
Karen Hutchinson-Talas-
ki, executive director of
the Umatilla Chamber of
Commerce and Visitor
Center, said.
Giles said the vacu-
um system is just one of
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surgical gases will run through a tunnel under ground that will
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many advanced features
the hospital will have
once the expansion is
complete. He said, addi-
tionally, the hospital will
have a sterilization cen-
ter, where hospital carts
and gurneys will be au-
tomatically sanitized. He
said those tasks are cur-
rently done by hand.
The expansion also in-
cludes a fan wall system,
which now sits atop the
surgical wing of the hospi-
tal and provides all of the
heating and air condition-
ing for the facility, which
can be controlled digitally.
“It is a pretty cool
unit,” Giles said. “It fea-
tures 64 fan units, and it
monitors the fresh air in-
take to the hospital.”
In the operating rooms,
doctors and hospital staff
will also have more than
350 extra square feet per
operating room in which
to work, as well as a place
to store advanced robot-
ics operating equipment.
“This has been a long
time coming,” Sanders
said. “It is going to be re-
ally nice.”
Giles said the project
should be complete and
move-in ready by mid-
June.
“The hospital is mak-
ing some great improve-
ments and is updating
to some fantastic equip-
ment,” he said.
MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTOS
The new surgical suite is expected to be completed in June. Pictured, new patient rooms sit
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