12:07 pm SSH officially opens new ICU waiting room
By Ashley Rader
A ribbon cutting was held Tuesday morning at Sycamore Shoals Hospital for the facility’s newly renovated Intensive Care Unit waiting room.
Photo by Brandon Hicks - Sycamore Shoals Hospital held a ribbon cutting for their recently renovated ICU waiting room. Pictured are Karen Clark, Chamber of Commerce President Richard Tester, John Wagner, Robert Reedy, Diane Laing, Tyler Tetrick, Sycamore Shoals Foundation Chairman Regina May, Nathan Goodwin, Chamber of Commerce Director Felicia English and Sycamore Shoals Vice President and CEO Dwayne Taylor.
The renovated waiting room is the first project that the Sycamore Shoals Foundation decided to undertake. The SSH Foundation works to provide support for the hospital and to help with projects that will benefit the patients and visitors to the hospital.
“We try to find ways to make a difference in the lives of the patients and their families,” said Regina May, Foundation Chairman.
SSH Vice President and CEO Dwayne Taylor said that when the Foundation was searching for their first project to undertake, the ICU waiting room kept making its way onto the list.
“We would remember coming by the waiting room and seeing families waiting in this small, outdated space,” Taylor said.
The renovation cost totaled $60,000 and doubled the square footage of the previous waiting room. To get the extra space, a semi-private room from the ambulatory surgery center was used. The wall between the two spaces was removed and the waiting room was extended into the new space.
The new area provides a larger, modern space for families to wait in while visiting family members in the ICU or while waiting for an update from the doctors or surgeons on a patient’s condition. Taylor said the seating areas were arranged into three “pods” to allow for individual spaces for the families and friends to sit while waiting.
The waiting room also has a computer with Internet access. Families can use this for their own needs or for research. Physicians can also use the computer to bring up information relating to a patient’s case. The waiting room is also equipped with Wi-Fi and a flat screen TV.
Taylor said the Foundation was only part of the effort behind the new waiting room. The SSH team members and other private donors contributed to the project, which was completed on time and on budget. He said they had one anonymous donor who asked to be notified when the donations had reached the point that only $10,000 more was needed. The donor then gave the final $10,000 to complete the waiting room.
Also, the SSH Auxiliary gave approximately $7,000 to the project which they raised through various fundraisers and the hospital gift shop sales.
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