McDowell Hospital Holds Topping Out Ceremony

MARION, N.C. — A topping out ceremony was held last week for Mission Health’s McDowell Hospital in Marion, as the construction team lifted the final beam of the building’s framework. The $45 million project broke groundOct. 25, 2015, and is scheduled for completion in late 2017.

The original McDowell Hospital was built in 1930 as a 50-bed hospital, which was later replaced by a 65-bed facility in 1983. Since then, expansions have included the Health Plus Rural Health Clinic, the county’s first fixed-based MRI facility, an emergency department expansion, a cancer center and physician practices in Glenwood, Marion, Nebo and Old Fort, according to the project website. Over time, the hospital continued to outgrow it needs, and hospital building codes have changed since 1983. As such the cost of renovating would have been the cost of new construction.

The new, 56,000-square-foot hospital will also include a new 28,000-square-foot medical office building will replace the existing hospital, which will remain functional until the new hospital is complete. Then, it will be demolished, reported McDowell News. Design Strategies is serving as the architect, while Vannoy Construction is serving as the general contractor — both of which are based in Charlotte, N.C.

The new hospital will feature 30 inpatient beds, including five designated labor, delivery, recovery and post-partum suites and 25 medical-surgical universal rooms. They will be larger and include sleep-in sofas. Other hospital features include also feature three inpatient/outpatient operating rooms and 12 pre- and postoperative bays (with one C-section room). Patients can also look forward to an expanded emergency room with 15 bays including two advanced trauma rooms, and the parking lot will be flat, making it easier for patients to access. The hospital will add advanced imaging and surgical equipment.

The hospital has 400 employees and currently receives 64,000 outpatient visits per year and 20,775 emergency department visits per year, according to the project website.