Crane erected to hoist hospital tower
Friday, November 20, 2009
Ness Crane workers hoist a jib to connect to the main crane tower Thursday morning at Central Washington Hospital.
A Northwest Tower Crane Inc. employee reaches for the mast as he stands atop the operators cabin of a large crane that will be used to build the new hospital tower at Central Washington Hospital.
Employees of Northwest Tower Crane Services Inc., Ness Crane and Mortenson Construction helped erect the main crane Thursday morning at Central Washington Hospital.
The large crane, owned by Mobile Crane Company, will be used to build the new hospital tower.
They began at 7 a.m. Thursday and completed it by the end of the day.
The crane should be operational by the end of today, said Gene Hodge of Mortenson Construction.
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DonThomason (Donald Thomason) says...
What will the tower be used for?. Everyday there seems to be a hard luck story about some medical facility going to hard times, now Central Washington Hospital is making so much money that they are building an unnecessary tower? Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake is laying off 45 employees because of these hard times? Hospitals in the Okanogan area are having to cut services because of losses?
November 21, 2009 at 7:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hemphill (Russ Hemphill) says...
Interesting question, Don. I'll ask a reporter to check to see how Central Washington Hospital's finances are looking. (I'm an editor at The World. 665-1161 hemphill@wenatcheeworld.com)
November 21, 2009 at 10:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mehaffey (K.C. Mehaffey) says...
Hi Don,
I'm the reporter that Russ asked to check on Central Washington Hospital's finances. On Wednesday, I spoke with Jack Evans, who is chief executive officer, and Steve Jacobs, the hospital's chief financial officer.
Basically, they said the hospital is doing okay financially, given the economy. They're not talking about layoffs, and expect to weather the recession, which they figure will continue into next year.
Mr. Jacobs said that bad debts — unpaid bills from people who should be able to afford care, and charity care — unpaid bills from people who can't afford care, will go up by year's end about 15 or 20 percent over last yeart, to about $17 million altogether in 2009. We plan to check with other hospitals in our region and will likely do a story on this.
On the matter of the tower, the hospital has been planning for years to expand and modernize, and this has been planned out and is not dependent on hospital revenues. Some is borrowed, some saved, some donated money. They are not a public hospital so none of it is public funding.
Jack Evans said that there are many reasons why this tower with new private rooms for patients is necessary. He said it will increase patient safety because infections won't spread as easily. It will help recovery times, because patients won't have to deal with noise from the other person in their room, or getting moved because the hospital is short on beds and needs to move someone out of acute care to free up a bed.
And also importantly, the old patient rooms are just too small and outdated to fit all of the equipment and technology necessary for the hospital to continue to provide quality care.
They said a lot more, too, so please feel free to contact me if you want to discuss it further.
K.C. Mehaffey
Wenatchee World reporter
mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com
509-997-2512
December 2, 2009 at 4 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )