The bags are almost packed. TWO NEW employees were recently hired.
“The move is upon us,” said Allen County Regional Hospital CEO Ron Baker in gearing up for the move across town to the new hospital.
Staging when various pieces of equipment and furniture are moved, “presents a challenge,” he said. In a little more than a week, equipment will start to be moved.
“It will be a very busy next two weeks,” he said Tuesday night.
The new hospital is scheduled to open at 7 a.m. Dec. 10.
Doctors who currently work at the hospital’s medical arts building to the southeast of the main building “want to get cleared out of this building and into a new space,” Baker said.
Finding that space, however, presents challenges. The new hospital was not designed to accommodate the various specialists who come to town on a regular basis. Their practices include cardiology, allergies, oncology, urology, podiatry, and ear, nose and throat.
The hope is for a new medical office building to be built on the grounds of the new hospital. When that might happen has not been determined. In the meantime, hospital staff are working to find ways to have the specialists see patients in the new hospital where space allows.
“A lot of people are coveting the MRI room,” said Baker, referring to an empty space until the time such a machine can be purchased. “I know we have the space at the new hospital, we just have to figure it out.”
The number of patients using the hospital’s new therapy department has tripled over the past six to nine months, Baker said.
The dramatic increase in physical and occupational therapy comes somewhat as a surprise.
“They’ve grown this demand here in this building without a lot of the aerobic equipment that will be at the new hospital,” Baker said.
Baker said he receives “lots of requests for charitable gifts,” for hospital equipment that will not be moved to the new facility.
Allen County commissioners will decide what will become of the current hospital once it is vacated, said Alan Weber, legal counsel.
Lots of ideas are continually proposed, Baker said, but whether any take root is the question.
“I doubt anyone is chomping at the bit to acquire the hospital,” he said.
Weber said it would cost the county upward of $100,000 a year to maintain the empty building.
“The question is, how long are we going to wait (for a buyer) until we are forced to raze it,” Weber said.
Katrina Regehr Springer, daughter of Mary Ann and Walt Regehr, has accepted a part-time position as dietitian.
And Lori Brown will become the new director of the respiratory therapy lab departments. Brown also has ties to the area. A grandmother is from the Bronson area.
The search for an in-house surgeon is progressing, Baker said. A recent trip to the area made a good impression on a prospective candidate, Baker said, and he plans to make a second trip with his family.
‘The move is upon us’
