Following a traditional groundbreaking ceremony for major renovations at Monongahela Valley Hospital in Carroll Township, Louis J. Panza Jr. held out his shovel, jokingly offering it to contractors.
Panza, president and chief executive officer of Mon-Vale Health Resources Inc. and the hospital, was as eager to see the $25 million expansion project begin as he was to herald its arrival.
On Monday, community members and public officials attended the ceremony for the project, which will involve operating rooms, the Charles L. and Rose Sweeney Melenyzer Pavilion and Regional Cancer Center, improvements to buildings at the hospital campus. The cost includes new equipment.
Construction for the operating rooms and the cancer center should take about a year. Infrastructure enhancements will take 3 1/2 years.
Construction will involve 15,950 square feet - nearly 5 percent of the hospital campus.
Two operating rooms will be added and existing facilities will be expanded to 600 square feet, roughly double the current size. The facilities will include boom systems to accommodate advanced medical technology.
The cancer center will house new image-guided radiation therapy equipment, which will require concreted walls to be expanded from two-feet thick to six- or eight-feet thick. The equipment will cost about $3 million.
The hyperbaric oxygen therapy area and the center for wound management will be expanded to accommodate more complex procedures.
Among the utility upgrades, Panza said, will be an independent heating and cooling system at the hospital. It will allow patients to control individual room temperature.
Panza said the expansion will bring state-of-the-art health care "one step further."
"I think this reinforces our continued efforts to be convenient for our patients and their families," Panza said. "There is no reason to leave the Mon Valley for health care."
Panza said the hospital has the largest independent cancer care center in western Pennsylvania.
Noting there will be about 70 contractors on site at the height of the project, Panza said, "We're creating a lot of economic value in the Mid-Mon Valley."
The medical staff and board members studied the campus for two years before recommending the projects.
"Today is the beginning of that dream," said Panza, whose comment drew applause from medical staff members in the Anthony M. Lombardi Education Conference Center.
Panza said hospital officials will embark on a fundraising campaign for the project at the annual gala, set May 21 at the Westin Convention Center and Hotel in Pittsburgh.
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, said that while federal officials debate health care, the hospital expansion is a prime example that the answers are not limited to Washington, D.C., but around the country in such community-based health care centers as Monongahela Valley Hospital.
Murphy said such facilities are a key part of communities where patients raise their families and work.
"They feel immediacy to the patients' needs, and that is something we can't lose as innovations in health care evolve," said Murphy, who established a career as a psychologist prior to election to the House of Representatives.
"How we can maximize the response to patents is to have health care close to home and that's what hospitals like Monongahela Valley Hospital can do."
