ECRMC breaks ground on ancillary service building
EL CENTRO — El Centro Regional Medical Center Board members and City of El Centro officials broke ground on a 29,000-square-foot Ancillary Service Building that will be constructed on the main campus of the hospital.
The two-story Ancillary Service Building will provide an upgraded in-patient pharmacy, an expanded kitchen and cafeteria area, a sterile processing department, medical records, offices for administration, and materials management with a receiving dock.
The building is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.
“This expansion has been long needed, and we are looking forward to getting this completed,” said Dr. Adolphe Edward, chief executive officer of ECRMC. “The improvements and additions we have in store for the hospital will elevate ECRMC to the next level and allow us to continue to provide quality care and comfort to the Imperial Valley Community. We are proud of everything the hospital provides and look forward to expanding and improving even more in the future.”
The Ancillary Services Building, along with a soon-to-open Medical Office Building, are just two of the many construction projects planned for the campus.
Future improvements include seismic retrofitting of patient care areas within the hospital to meet State of California requirements.
The state issued seismic retrofit regulations to develop and repair designs for existing hospital buildings in order to ensure hospitals are able to provide essential services during and after earthquakes.
While subsequent legislation has allowed compliance extensions, the final date for compliance is Jan. 1, 2020.
The hospital said in a release it will also be expanding its emergency department.
That work will begin in 2019 and be finished in 2020.
Dr. Edward noted, “In 2020, ECRMC will have new patient rooms and expanded capacity in our emergency room, ensuring the residents of Imperial County will have access to quality patient care.”