Herrin Hospital Friday unveiled the final phase of its nearly three-year long expansion project.
Chief of Surgery Dr. Don Arnold says the 23.7 million dollar project will mean good things for the hospital and its patients.
"One, I think it's going to lead to an efficiency for taking care of the patients that we already have. Two, I think we're going to have an exponential influx of more patients because now we have the ability to take care of them. Number three, I think we're going to attract more G.I. specialists because of our set-up and our infrastructure. So, we'll have some more people that are available to handle that influx of new patients."
Herrin Hospital has added 14 new surgeons since planning for the project started in 2013.
Hospital administrator Rodney Smith says the expansion allows his facility to serve many patients who would normally have to go as far away as St. Louis for certain procedures. But, he says there is always room to grow even further.
"There are still a lot of patients that have to go outside of the area. So, as we identify what those areas are and build those services, those relationships, we'll be adding even more."
The expansion and renovation project resulted in seven operating rooms, three new ones and four that were modernized, a new recovery area in same day surgery, new endoscopy and minor procedures surgical suite.
The new operating rooms and Same Day Surgery suites are already open. The new Endoscopy unit will open on Monday.
