The new outpatient physical therapy center may be smaller, but that just makes it better, staff members at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle said Friday as they celebrated the project’s completion during an open house reception.
The new 4,500-square-foot department, located on the first floor of the patient tower’s south wing, cost around $500,000 to complete. Columbus-based architect firm Pryor & Marrow handled the construction.
The department was previously housed in the old Columbus Hospital at Willowbrook Drive, but the 7,000-square-foot space had little privacy and lots of wasted space, Director Dawn Thomas said.
The new facility features a large room with recumbent bicycles and elliptical machines, new treadmills, a mirrored wall with parallel bars and other physical therapy equipment. The main room is surrounded by small offices which will be used for speech and occupational therapy.
Thomas said she was able to bring everything she needed from the old center to the new one, including a special swing which hangs from the ceiling and is used for a number of purposes, including working with autistic children.
As Thomas wandered through the bright, cheery new facility, which is decorated in a blue and brown motif, she said there were no details left unconsidered, from patient parking to file storage.
Patients will have two handicapped spaces and nine reserved outpatient parking spots adjacent to the building. Files will now be locked away in a special room.
“The privacy issue we’ve had in the past is going to be so much better,” Thomas said. “It’s a little smaller, but they did a really good job in making it efficient.”
The location also offers more convenient access to the rest of the hospital, streamlining resources and better utilizing therapists’ time, BMH-GT Assistant Administrator Bill Lancaster said.
Willowbrook had also been home to the Behavioral Healthcare Center, which relocated to its new $10 million facility in December. The hospital will begin accepting bids at the end of the month to demolish Willowbrook so the site can be prepared for construction of a new storage facility.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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