cherry hospital
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 31, 2015 1:46 PM
Final inspections are continuing at the new $93 million Cherry Hospital as the state moves toward accepting ownership of the facility sometime in January.
"That date is contingent upon no unexpected issues being identified during our ongoing final inspections of the facility," said Olivia James of the state Department of Health and Human Services. "Once we accept possession of the hospital, an opening is anticipated in about 90 days.
"During those 90 days, before patients will be moved, hospital staff will be training in the new facility and ensuring everything is in order for a smooth transfer of patients in early spring."
That will be more than three years past its original projected opening date as bomb threats halted construction on several occasions.
But the main problem that contributed to the three-year delay was an issue with the original electrical subcontractor.
The delay did not add to the project cost, state officials said.
Construction on the three-story, 410,000-square-foot psychiatric facility, located next to the State Employees Credit Union on West Ash Street, began in 2010 and was to have been completed in 2012.
It includes a 316-bed facility housing residential patient care units, therapy and medical facilities and administrative offices.
Once accepted by the state the hospital staff will implement a detailed 12-week plan to train and educate 1,000 employees to move from a building that was designed in the 1950s to a new, modern psychiatric hospital.
Another challenge will be to open the new hospital while continuing to operate the existing one until the transfer can be completed.
The current hospital has 380,000 square feet spread across four different buildings. That means patients routinely have to be taken from building to building, regardless of the weather, to receive certain services such as dental care, physical therapy or an X-ray.
Cherry Hospital currently has slightly less than 1,000 employees. That will increase to approximately 1,400 when the new facility opens.
The Department of Health and Human Services is assisting the hospital in putting together a team to help with recruitment of physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses and health care techs.
The addition of 373 employees will have a "significant" economic impact on Goldsboro and Wayne County, state officials said.