Managing Editor

Administrators at Upson Regional Medical Center say the $16 million renovation and expansion of the hospital is moving along on schedule.

The expansion will increase the size of the hospital from 207,000 square feet to 252,000 square feet. In addition to the new 45,000-square-foot addition, another 30,000 square feet of the existing building will be renovated.

URMC Director of Marketing and Public Relations Director Glenda Grant said construction crews should begin pouring footings for a new lab, and that mechanical work will start in the New Wound Healing Center on the facility's ground floor.

Grant said that beginning early next week, natural gas crews will begin relocating gas lines to the hospital's kitchen while graders begin site work on the grounds.

"The city will be relocating power lines on poles to underground," Grant said. "This will require a two to three hour period of auxiliary power."

n The new entrance of the hospital will face Cherokee Road, instead of West Gordon Street.

n A 200-space parking deck will be constructed adjacent to the new atrium-type main lobby which will include a central patient registration area and new gift shop.

n A 20-bed Outpatient Services Center will be constructed. This addition includes same-day surgery and outpatient services.

n The size of the emergency room will be doubled and include a 20-bed Emergency Services Center.

n A new Women's Diagnostic Center will be added to the Radiology Department and will include mammography, new biopsy table, bone densitometry and ultrasound services within a private discrete suite.