Hospital trustees authorize TCU expansion project

Sheridan Memorial Hospital trustees have approved the estimated budget and authorized Hospital CEO Mike McCafferty to proceed with plans for expansion of the hospital’s transitional care unit.

Action came in the board meeting this week after McCafferty outlined what the expansion involves.

McCafferty said the project is to expand the hospital’s ability to provide transitional care, and it’s tied to efforts to expand the hospital’s capabilities around COVID-19 surge readiness.

The hospital this summer received a $2.1 million grant from the State Loan and Investment Board to improve surge readiness, and McCafferty said that project is underway.

The Transitional Care Unit project is estimated to cost just over $5.9 million, and McCafferty said those funds will come from the hospital’s capital funds and from fundraising by the Sheridan Memorial Hospital Foundation.

He said the rooms currently being used for transitional care will be repurposed for general medical care. He said that, in turn, opens the hospital’s ability to take care of COVID-19 patients in those rooms without interrupting service to transitional care patients.

McCafferty estimated that fundraising for the Transitional Care Unit expansion could be complete by summer of 2021, and construction could start around that time. Rob Forister, who is the hospital’s director of facility support, estimated construction could be completed in around eight months.