Ralph Hull Regional Heart Center
It began with a vision
Since 1996, hundreds of area residents had received comprehensive cardiac care at Good Samaritan Hospital Corvallis (now called Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center). Cardiologists completed diagnostic and interventional procedures in the hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab, and cardiac surgeons performed open heart surgery in the hospital’s Surgery Department.
As increasing volume placed pressure on existing facilities and equipment, physicians and staff began to envision a better way to deliver cardiac care: a regional heart center where diagnostic equipment, medical offices, rehabilitation and treatment facilities – along with wellness, education and prevention activities – would all be expanded and located in one convenient facility.
But this $4 million regional heart center would be more than a new building, sophisticated technology and the latest treatment methods. Ultimately, the center would be about healing – a part of the fundamental mission that has formed the basis of Good Samaritan Hospital’s existence for 50 years.
For this reason, community leaders –hospital and foundation board members, business and professional leaders, physicians, employees and patients – united to support this effort.
The Heart Center: An Overview
The regional heart center concept was approved by the Good Samaritan Hospital Board of Directors in March 1998, after reviewing patient utilization data and demographic trends, which all pointed toward continued strong growth of the cardiac program and a need for additional space and equipment.
The five-story, 35,000-square-foot heart center links to the southeast side of the hospital and creates a sorely-needed east entrance, which is used by many other outpatients and visitors. Although the vast majority of the addition is dedicated to the Samaritan Heart & Vascular Institute, the construction also facilitated the expansion of the hospital gift shop and main lobby, the establishment of a more private surgery waiting area adjacent to the lobby, and the relocation of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment to a space on the ground floor of the new addition.
|
