Atchison Hospital was built and founded in 1912 and by next year will have a new location.
Through the vision of the hospital CEO, John Jacobson, a location was found and construction was started immediately.
Jacobson felt if the hospital was going to move, then he had to find a use for the old hospital and surrounding buildings that they owned. The college was the logical choice since the campus is growing, as well as land locked. Jacobson’s desire is to donate the property to the college.
President Stephen D. Minnis has many plans for what to do with the property.
“We have several plans for the hospital property," Minnis said. "In the Ramsay Medical Building, we plan to use the top floor for the nursing program. We plan to keep the Cray Manor building and place student housing on the top floor and offices and classrooms on the main floor and basement. Our plans are to tear down the hospital properly and use that for future development.”
According to Jacobson, the change is due to two factors: the functionality and design of the old building.
Being that the hospital in its current state is almost over 100 years old, problems with sewage lines, water lines, temperature issues, mold and asbestos are just a few of the numerous issues that such an old facility has obtained.
"Basically our board room is a great example, the way we control our heat in the board room is either the thermostat is on or off," Jacobson said. "I have a board meeting this afternoon and I will probably get up three or four times during a meeting and I will turn it on or turn it off. There’s really no temperature control per say and that’s a really simple thing but when you magnify that across the entire building with other infrastructure issues, the problems start to pile up."
The new Atchison Hospital will be relocated to Raven Hill Road and US Highway 73 in south Atchison.
The new hospital will also prevent surgery issues by having one new small Operating Room and two new large OR's, which will average 640 square feet over the old hospital's 280 square feet OR.
"So if you’re an orthopedic surgeon, and you’re bringing all these massive pieces equipment into the OR to do this procedure, imagine the difference between 280 square feet and 640," Jacobson said.
Jacobson said they did look at staying on the old site though, and surprisingly, the price difference between staying versus moving wasn’t all that different. But due to design and functionality issues, Jacobson made the decision to move and relocate their services.
The new hospital will also benefit patients immensely, being that the emergency department will have numerous additions as well.
The old hospital currently has five bays, whereas the new facility will hold up to nine.
There will be six exam rooms, two designated trauma rooms and one observation room, which will lead to the total of nine. The various departments and areas are also going to be consolidated and come together as well. The single-story facility design will hopefully allow this to happen and increase efficiency among staff to be entirely focused on the patients.
"From a staffing perspective you can imagine how much easier it is going to be for staff to float from one area to the next, knowing that they’re only 75 feet apart on the same floor," Jacobson said.
All rooms will also have the benefit of being private and having showers, rather than just having one, single, lonely shower like the old hospital possesses on the third floor.
A four-bed Intensive Care Unit will also be provided. It will have two beds for very active patients and also for the heavy patients, a lift off the ceiling that can carry up to 600 lbs.
"As we try to move a patient out of bed, rather than the nurse try to move that patient by themselves, we’ll actually have a lift that will assist in the process," Jacobson said.
IT (Information Technology) will also be integrated into computer systems for easier accessibility.
"We’ll actually be able to bring down in the room a high definition TV that will allow them to see the MRI right there in the room," Jacobson said.
The height of the ceilings is also a current issue in the decaying hospital.
"Several things like the height of our ceilings right now, we have 10-foot ceilings. In the new facility they will be 16-18 feet. We’re starting work those differences out," Jacobson said.
That doesn't even include all the stuff that needs to go above the ceiling tiles.
"You have pipes, you have wires, you have IT, you have oxygen, you have all kinds of stuff that needs to go above the ceiling and we just don't have the capacity in this old facility to get all that."
According to the hospital's website there will also be "comfortable, hotel-like, family friendly obstetric rooms that accommodate all phases of having a baby."
Nurse’s stations will be located closer to patient’s rooms and new technology will allow the nursing staff to observe the patient’s bedside fetal monitor from the nurse’s station.
The construction is also currently on time. The general contractor, J.E. Dunn, will turn over the building to the hospital sometime around Dec. 1, and if staff stays on track with surveys and other needed requirements they plan to move in Tuesday, Jan. 12.
Three open houses will also be provided prior to the move-in as well.
The first open house will be on Tuesday, Jan. 5, from 4:30 - 8 p.m. The second will be Thursday, Jan. 7 from 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. for VIP's of the city and the final open house for the community will be on Saturday, Jan. 9, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
If all goes well, the new Atchison Hospital will open its services to the public at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 12.
