Via Christi formally opens new women's center

Via Christi Hospital formally opened its new third floor women’s center Sunday afternoon with a blessing and ribbon-cutting ceremony for community members and hospital staff.

The ceremony started at 2 p.m. and ended with tours of the new facility and refreshments in the hospital cafeteria. Cleaning staff began the process of moving equipment from the second floor – most of the original equipment was transferred there during the renovation process – Sunday evening, and the $8 million center could receive its first patient as early as Tuesday, officials said. There are special gift baskets waiting for the first male and female infants born in the new center.

Guests crammed the lobby of the third floor center for the ceremony. After opening remarks and a welcome from Via Christi President and CEO Randy Cason, Via Christi Health President and CEO Jeff Korsmo said the new center was an exciting portent of improvements to come.

“This just looks fantastic,” Korsmo said. “It’s a wonderful model for our future.

“Human dignity is a model, and each room is private,” he continued. “We will deliver care to each of our patients. It reflects our confidence in the future of Via Christi in Pittsburg. The Holy Spirit was with us here, and it’s been with us every step of the way.”

John Mitchelson, chairman of the Via Christi Hospital Pittsburg Board of Directors, said the process had been long, but worth it.

“Four years ago we determined we needed to upgrade, and you’ve seen what has happened since,” Mitchelson said, adding that it shows the Board’s commitment to Pittsburg and the surrounding community. “We’re thrilled to open this facility.”

Pittsburg resident Lacey Wilbert recently gave birth to her son, Barrett. She said the new center is a great facility.

“I love it!” Wilbert said. “I think it’s gorgeous. Very peaceful.”

Pittsburg State University nurse Lauren Reno and Hannah Hunsinger said they were impressed by the new center, and hoped to be able to work in a similar environment when they graduate.

“They’ve needed to renovate a lot,” Reno said. “I think it’s really nice here.”

Hundinger agreed.

“It’s really an exciting opportunity for the community,” she said. “I think it shows how special it is here in Pittsburg.”

Work on the center – which opened in its original capacity in 1971 –officially began in June. The floor originally housed three patient care wings, one of which was for pediatric care, and offices for education, respiratory therapy, social work and the hospital’s sleep laboratories.

President and CEO Randy Cason said the center was conceived with past, current and future infants born in Pittsburg in mind.

“On behalf of the kids who have been born here, tomorrow and many years to come, this is what it’s all about,” Cason said, adding that the center was a cumulative effort. “With a project like this there isn’t one person who is responsible. There were many long, hard hours by a tremendous team. We’re very proud of it, and we hope you are, too.”

The center features two new labor and delivery rooms, bringing the total to five; two triage rooms, which are used to diagnose patients and which the previous center did not have; a designated waiting area; enhanced central fetal monitoring; and 13 postpartum/gynecological rooms with a spa-type feel, Cesarean section rooms and a nursery. The whole floor has two-pane windows to help regulate heating and cooling costs, as will the second and fourth floors.

The labor and delivery rooms are especially nice, said Janelle Wade, director of women’s health. They will have designated waiting spaces for fathers, built-in cabinets and baby incubators, as well as dedicated lights and beds in each room.

The current women’s unit was opened more than 40 years ago, and while that doesn’t mean it has ever been unsafe, it hasn’t been state-of-the-art for a long time. The new center will include both technological and personnel improvements. From a technological perspective, nurses will be able to keep an eye on multiple babies from a central fetal monitoring station rather than watching one at a time from their bedside. The center will also employ a lactation consultant instead of a lactation specialist, which will boost its quality of care.

The renovation also will allow the hospital to provide a service it hasn’t in the past.

“When we have babies born, a lot of times if they are premature, they are delivered elsewhere,” Julianna Rieschick, the hospital’s vice president of patient care services, said in a recent article.

“After a time, they reach ‘feeder grower’ status, which means they just need to be monitored, but are stabilized and are growing fine. We will have the ability to keep those here, so the parents aren’t traveling so far to take care of their child. Having a baby is stressful as it is. The last thing we want parents to do is to travel. We want them to take care of the baby here, and that way we can take care of the community.”

The new women’s center is one of multiple modernizing projects Via Christi has recently undertaken. Starting eight years ago, the hospital built a new outpatient area on the west end, which includes the emergency room, Via Christi Heart Center and QuickCare. It added a new fifth-floor intensive care unit in 2006 and a cardiac step-down unit — literally, a step down from intensive care — in 2009. Last year, it completed an $800,000 renovation of the main lobby, added a $2.7 million linear accelerator to the cancer center and $1.5 million in new technology to the heart center. There also are plans to renovate the first floor chapel.

Dewitt & Associates of Springfield, Mo., was the main contractor for the project.