The Wright Stuff: New tower is another cause for celebration

A message to the WVU Medicine-WVU Hospitals Family

We are just a few weeks past two of our most cherished and joyous holidays, but there is still cause for celebration around our WVU Medicine campus.

That’s because our new southeast tower is open!

Originally announced in 2012, the tower is now more than just a vision or symbolic beacon of “some day.” It’s here – and it will help us open much-needed space for additional patients who depend on us to provide the highest quality care in the region.

Construction began in September 2014 and advanced rapidly. Contractors are still finishing some areas and work will continue into the spring. But several floors began operations earlier this month, which is excellent news considering our census was typically at or near maximum capacity throughout 2016.

As excited as I am about the opening of the new tower, I may not be the happiest person at WVU Medicine to see this project come to fruition. So many of you sacrificed so much to make this a reality. When you think about the effort that goes into, not just the construction, but the occupying of a facility like this, it’s staggering.

Fortunately, we not only had visionary leaders at the administrative level to help plan and coordinate the move-in, but we had input from units, departments, and individuals throughout WVU Medicine. Together, they helped shape a general plan into something more specific, more efficient. Each of the tower’s 10 individual floor plans has been discussed and tailored to best suit the needs of the patient.

But the work didn’t stop there. Employees in Environmental Services rallied to prep and clean the tower. Our biomedical engineers helped move, install, and adapt equipment specific to each floor. Representatives from Facilities Management added special touches to the construction that best reflected our needs. Individual units had the unenviable task of moving their patients to the new floors. But before that, they had to test and confirm that the floors and each new room would be patient-ready. There were minor delays and glitches along the way but, as always, patient care was never compromised.

Since the first moves occurred right after New Year’s, many employees sacrificed their holidays, taking minimum time off, so the transition would be smooth. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.

These staff members will be unknown to our grateful patients but, to me, they are the heroes of the new southeast tower.

I salute the dedication of those of you who planned, organized, built, moved, and, yes, sweated, to make WVU Medicine even better in 2017.

Pictured top, right: Cardiac monitor technicians, from left to right, Sabrina Cartwright, Kayla Sisler, and Megan Maxwell pose in a nurses station on the third floor of the new southeast tower. The third floor houses the Critical Care Unit/Cardiothoracic Unit.

Pictured bottom, left: Julia Vaglienti, RN, moves an observation patient into a room on 3SE of the new tower Jan. 6.