WRH lobby reopens; renovation continues

Whitfield Regional Hospital Friday celebrated the completion of the first phase of its renovation with a ribbon-cutting to open its updated and redesigned main lobby.

With scores of dignitaries, supporters and hospital staff looking on, Demopolis Mayor Woody Collins and Marengo County Commission chairman Terry Hinton cut the blue ribbon making the completion of the project official.

Crews will spent the weekend setting up the computers and phone system and transferring records, office supplies and equipment to be ready for patients to use the main portal Monday morning.

Hospital CEO/Administrator Doug Brewer took a moment before the ribbon was cut to thank four groups he considers vital to the success of the hospital.

Community leaders from the city and county “have helped us get to this point, and we’re not done yet,” he stated.

In recognizing the hospital’s Board of Directors, he said, “In this community we have no idea how much stress [they] went through for the worst paychecks in the world – zero.” He added the members of the board “have helped us come from about as low as you can go to where we are now.”

When Brewer next recognized the WRH employees, the audience broke out in applause. “They stuck by this hospital and put themselves at risk,” he said. “I can’t tell you how much this staff means to this community and this hospital.”

Finally, he honored the patients and their families and emphasized they are the reason all the groups mentioned are working for the hospital. Soon, he added, signs will be going up all over the WRH saying that it is, “The very best hospital in the country that does what we do.”

The main lobby décor sets the tone for what will be seen throughout the hospital. The look of stone and wood can be seen in the flooring, ceiling and reception desks. Eye-catching fixtures feature energy-efficient LED lights.

Construction in the lobby took six months, but planning for the renovation has been going on for years. The hospital was given a go-ahead after county voters approved a 4-mil property tax in December 2019, the proceeds of which are dedicated to the hospital.

While the main lobby was being completed, crews began work on the next phase – the Emergency Department. The only addition to the hospital building itself, the new ED will include separate entrances for ambulance and walk-in patients, a waiting room, two additional treatment rooms and a registration area.

Assistant Administrator Dereck Morrison said ED construction should take six to eight months. In the meantime, the Out-Patient entrance, which had been used temporarily while the main lobby was undoing renovation, will become the ED entrance.

At the same time the ED work is going on, other parts of the renovation will continue both inside and outside the main hospital building. The third floor is being readied for the re-opening of the hospital’s Labor and Delivery Unit, tentatively set for April 5. The entire building is being power-washed and repainted to match the interior décor. New flooring, lighting and furnishings are going in, and every window in the hospital is being replaced since, said Morrison, every one of them leaks.

The current power plant was installed more than 50 years ago. Bids to install the new one will be accepted in February and work is expected to take up to nine months, Morrison said. The combined heat and power unit already has been purchased. Spire Energy must run new high-power lines. The new system will include two boilers, two steam generators and total replacement of all the plumbing.

The only part of the renovation plans that will not be completed is the Operating Room. WRH has a set of plans, he explained, but when the cost estimates came in, it was decided to put that part of the project on hold until money could become available.