By Nick McCrea, Bangor Daily News
BANGOR, Maine — Eastern Maine Medical Center officials showed off the hospital’s new $305 million expansion on Tuesday, promising the eight-story structure would better serve patients for generations to come.
The hospital hosted about 200 community leaders, donors, supporters, contractors and government officials, including Maine Gov. Paul LePage, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours Tuesday morning.
“Our patients and visitors will benefit from the most modern, patient-focused building we could create,” said Deborah Carey Johnson, the hospital’s president and CEO.
The hospital has named the new building the Penobscot Pavilion. Officials broke ground on the project in September 2013.
It’s home to EMMC’s new main entrance, which features a new gift shop, indoor trees and a lounge-style atmosphere with lots of seating and electrical outlets. The sixth floor holds private rooms for cardiology patients, and the seventh a huge expansion of the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The amount of space available for neonatal infants grew from about 3,000 square feet to about 30,000 square feet, according to Helen McKinnon, a nurse and the hospital’s vice president of support services.
The rest of the pavilion is still in the works, and is scheduled to be fully operational sometime in the summer of 2017. That’s when new operating rooms, two more floors dedicated to cardiovascular services, and a new space for women and families awaiting childbirth will debut.
Carey Johnson said the hospital wanted to provide more space and private rooms for its patients, and more amenities for their families, including things as simple as a washer and dryer for families on the NICU floor and couches that fold down into beds.
The eighth and fourth floors are dedicated largely to utilities and mechanical equipment.
The expansion opens its doors to patients on June 7. Leading up to that day, hospital officials have been holding events for staff members, community leaders, donors and others to display the work that’s been done.
This story appears through a partnership with the Bangor Daily News.