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Debra Marinari, assistant director of emergency care, stands outside the CT scan room at MediCorp's Stafford Hospital Center. Stafford rescue squads have been told to take most of their patients to the new hospital once it opens Feb. 27.
Stafford hospital bears similarities to its city sister, Mary Washington Hospital.
Registered nurse Lisa Carter and others prepare Stafford Hospital Center for its planned Feb. 27 opening. |
BY JIM HALL
The staff arrived at Stafford Hospital Center yesterday, the first time all of the workers had been in the new hospital together.
In the same-day-surgery section, nurses were working on a "to-do list."
And in the maternity unit, workers were designing the forms they will need.
"It's exciting to have them here. It's real now," said Cathy Yablonski, the hospital's administrator.
Many of the new workers were hired in December and have been training at Mary Washington Hospital, the Stafford hospital's sister facility in Fredericksburg.
But yesterday they got to tour their new workplace, meet with supervisors and greet their colleagues.
"The building feels alive today," said Bob Jensen, director of human resources for MediCorp Health System, parent company for both hospitals.
Jensen and his staff have hired 323 workers for the new hospital on U.S. 1. They hope to have 340 by the Feb. 27 opening and 395 eventually.
Still to be filled are jobs such as pharmacist, ultrasound technician and registered nurse.
About 12 percent of Stafford's work force transferred from elsewhere in the MediCorp system, Jensen said.
They include Elizabeth Espinoza, a registered nurse and
Espinoza said she was interested in Stafford because it is closer to her home in the Park Ridge subdivision, and because its maternity service will allow pregnant women to labor, deliver and recover in the same room. At Mary Washington, the labor-and-delivery unit is separate from the postpartum area.
In addition, Espinoza said she likes the idea of working in her own community.
"The teachers at my daughter's school will come here," she said.
Many of Stafford's workers are new to the area, having relocated from other parts of the country.
Others, like Bryana Branham of King George County, have been commuting to jobs outside the Fredericksburg area. The registered nurse has been working at Civista Medical Center in La Plata, Md.
Her new commute will be almost identical in time and distance to her old one, she said. But she'll make more at Stafford, she said, and "I was excited to think I could open a new hospital."
Much about Stafford is new, but the hospital will also be familiar to those who have been to Mary Washington.
On the outside, the brick facade, the green-tinted windows and the directional signs on the roadways resemble those at Mary Washington.
Inside, the guards are supplied by Old Dominion Security and the cafeteria food is prepared by Sodexho, both contractors at Mary Washington.
The computer, radiology and lab systems for the two hospitals will be connected. Doctors working at one hospital will have access to patient records from the other.
And the "house" doctors at Stafford--the hospitalists, radiologists, pathologists, anesthesiologists and ER doctors--will be from the same physician practices that work at Mary Washington.
So far, there are no scheduled surgeries or C-section deliveries at Stafford and no planned admissions for opening day. So it's possible that the first patient will arrive by ambulance.
Rescue squads in Stafford have been told to take most of their patients to the new hospital. Trauma cases, or patients with chest pains or a suspected stroke, will still go to Mary Washington.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
The public will get its first look at Stafford Hospital Center at an open house set for Sunday, Feb. 15, from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, |
