New hospital construction to break ground

Expansion will provide state of the art medical care

The 51,000 square-foot addition will stand three-stories high and take 15 months to complete.

On Aug. 30 the St. Charles Parish Hospital board members accepted a bid that will help pave the way for construction to begin this month on an expansion project that has been years in the making.

According to Federico Martinez, the hospital’s CEO, plans for the new wing were originally developed in 2002 as part as the parish’s continuing effort to provide citizens of St. Charles Parish with improved medical treatment.
“This expansion will bring the availability of health care for the community to a higher level with the assistance of better technology and patient services,” said Martinez.

The initial plans for the 51,000-square-foot addition promise improved cardiology and cancer departments, larger dialysis and intensive care units to accommodate both equipment and patients, and services to provide women and children with medical attention that is geared more toward their specific needs.

The addition is designed as a three-story building that will connect to the existing two-story medical office building and the hospital wing by way of two elevated corridors.

Once the addition is complete, the hospital can then increase the size of the emergency room and laboratories within the existing building.

This is the first major expansion since the 1970s and according to Martinez the overall long term vision for the hospital within the next five years will include more physicians and an assisted living center to be built in Luling.

“We are currently negotiating the purchase of ten acres of land in phase one of the Ashton Plantation Estates development which will house an assisted living center and a medical office building,” said Martinez.

In addition to the hospital expansion, Martinez says that in the past two years the hospital has made great strides towards improving the technology within the existing facility.

“We are working towards putting all files on electronic records which will not only save us valuable time and storage space, but will save us money,” said Martinez.

According to the CEO, their imaging department, which handles all X-ray procedures and internal scanning, has already reached the goal of total electronic records which saves the hospital $150,000 per year.