College renovates former Church Health facility
"Perfect timing'' is how the president of Baptist College of Health Sciences describes last year's move by Church Health into Crosstown Concourse.
The growing college needed more room and is getting another 75,000 square feet vacated by neighboring Church Health. The space at 1115 Union housed Church Health's wellness center for 17 years.
The college recently started a $1.2 million, first-phase renovation, which is converting much of the glass-fronted building into classroom and office space.
"It will house not only faculty, but added classrooms and ultimately an inter-professional learning laboratory for our students,'' President Betty Sue McGarvey.
College officials anticipate moving into the building by late July.
Wagner General Contractors is carrying out the renovation design created by Bottletree Design Group.
Operated by Baptist Memorial Health Care, the college has 145 fulltime faculty and 1,100 students, about 60 percent of whom are in the nursing program. The school offers other bachelor degrees including diagnostic medical sonography, health care management, medical radiography, medical laboratory science, nuclear medicine, radiation therapy and respiratory therapy.
Baptist College of Health Sciences straddles Union Avenue. On the north side of Union are the residence hall at 1003 Monroe and the science laboratories at 22 N. Pauline. On the south side at 1111 Union is the Division of Nursing, faculty offices, some classrooms and nursing simulation labs.
The former Church Health facility is not only immediately south of the nursing building, it connects to it. Baptist Memorial Health Care has long owned the space, but had leased it to the nonprofit Church Health for $1 a year.
The building's availability to the college is "perfect timing'' because the school is adding programming and plans to add another 200 students over the next six to seven years, McGarvey said.
The extra 75,000 square feet will allow the school to return what are now offices at 1003 Monroe back into an additional 80 housing spaces, for which there's a high demand, McGarvey said.
The college also plans next school year to start a new bachelor degree program called population health, which focuses on improving the health of an entire population within a community.
"Our strategic plan looks to grow to around 1,300 students,'' McGarvey said. "So (the expansion) is essential for us to be able to meet that metric.''
The school also recently started its first doctoral program to prepare gerontological nurse practitioners "because of the need within this area,'' she said.
The school next year expects to start the second phase of the renovation of the old Church Health building. That space will house a 250-seat auditorium, expanded food services, and the interprofessional simulation laboratory. The program allows students in different majors to work together and simulate experiences in their practice areas.
Instead of having to wait to graduate and become licensed practioners before learning how to create a plan of care with professionals from other health care fields, they can create one while students, McGarvey said.
The additional space will allow "the faculty to be very innovative with those types of the learning opportunities and give those students not only a chance to learn what each major can contribute to promoting the health of patients but also have debriefing rooms.
"The debriefing rooms will not only be about how they cared for the patient but the faculty will also be guiding them in how they communicated with each other in caring for the patient,'' McGarvey said.
Also, the building's exterior will be refreshed with paint and graphics. And the college is working with Kersey Wike Associates landscape architects to redesign over 7,300 square feet of foliage and seating to provide "a vibrant outdoor refuge for students, faculty, and staff,'' college officials said.