Medical personnel and staff eagerly await completion of construction of the new addition to the Franklin County Medical Center (FCMC) in Preston, Idaho.
“I’ve talked to surgeons, I’ve talked to housekeepers and nurses,” said Darin Dransfield, CEO of FCMC. “Each one of them is giddy with the opportunities. We’ve always had the staff with the skills, now we’re providing them with a building to really compliment those skills.”
The 15,000-square-foot expansion of the FCMC includes a trauma center, radiology lab, additional operating suites and a new laboratory.
“This is a big deal for the community. It’s going to bring not only better procedures. It’s going to bring more providers to the area.” Dransfield added, “The ultimate goal and outcome is to care for our residents so they don’t have to go elsewhere.”
Caring for residents means hiring additional staff. “The immediate need is in nursing,” according to Dransfield.
Nurse Patricia Bowles agreed. “Registered nurses are in big demand. We have hired five new registered nurses and we probably need to hire two or three more.”
Bowles is excited for the nursing staff to move over to the new wing of the hospital and says it has been a long time coming. “We have just been so short on space,” she said. “It will be great to be able to maintain patient privacy more easily.”
The expansion comes at a cost of about $12 million.
“A large portion of the hospital was USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) funded and the rest was out of the hospital pocket, so there’s no obligation to the community,” said Dransfield.
Work on the trauma center, radiology lab and operating suites are on schedule. Crews will begin construction on the new hospital laboratory in May.
The entire project is expected to be completed sometime in August.