Do Not Disturb

SAINT MARYS, ELK COUNTY - The Elk Regional Health Center has a whole new floor.

"It involved renovating for an 8 bed maturity unit ; it involved 42 private rooms for our medical, surgical  and a 10 bed generation psych unit" said Sam MacDonald, Director of support services.

The whole project cost $10.5 million. The money came from a grant from the Department of Health, a Capital Campaign launched by Elk Regional and a low-interest long- term loan from the US Department of Agriculture Rural Development office  Community Facilities program.

For the nurses and patients it was a much needed upgrade. The current facilities were built between 1941 and 1984.

"I think the main thing that's really nice for us is that it's single rooms so we will have privacy" said

"We'll have a bird's eye view of every patient  (and) that will definitely be the biggest help" said

Jennifer McAllister, Unit manager .

The renovation project began before Obamacare came to fruition. The two now go hand and hand.

"A huge part of health care reform is a focus on patient satisfaction and quality and one of the huge parts of having private rooms like we have now is it is better for infection control, it's quieter and it's a better healing environment" said MacDonald.

"I think it helps not only delivering care for safety and privacy but it will be better for the patients naturally " adds Coroso.

It allows the hospital to also be ahead of other medical centers in the region. They are the only hospital with all private rooms.

"The business side will sort of take care of itself so, really it starts with taking the best care of people that we can" said MacDonald.

A public viewing will be held from 2:00-4:00 on Friday.