Delray Medical Center set to open $80M expansion
Patients will be admitted to the fourstory wing by July 11.
DELRAY BEACH — Now equipped with private patient rooms and a rooftop helipad for quicker transports, Delray Medical Center will soon open its largest expansion since the hospital was built in 1982.
The July 11 opening of the $80 million patient wing promises to impress.
The four-story wing adds a new, larger main entrance, 96 private patient rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, a cardiovascular clinic, five-level parking garage and a helipad to speed Trauma Hawk patient transfers.
As the finishing touches were put on the new wing Tuesday, The Palm Beach Post toured the facility, where a ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for Thursday.
Patients — primarily orthopedic, neuroscience and surgical — will be admitted to the new center by July 11, said Jared Smith, chief operating officer at Delray Medical.
“It feels more like a hotel than a hospital,” Smith said.
The most apparent change is the addition of private rooms. Along with 96 new patient rooms in the wing, Delray Medical Center converted 96 additional rooms into private rooms.
The hospital, on Linton Boulevard at Military Trail, won’t bill extra for private rooms.
The rooms, Smith said, allow privacy for patients and their visitors, as well as quiet for hospital staff. Each room has a bathroom with shower, 42-inch screen television and floor-to-ceiling windows that allow sunlight to pour in.
The added 96 rooms are split between the third and fourth
floors of the wing, with nurses stations, medicinal storage and a central room to monitor patient vitals roundthe-clock on each floor.
On the roof of the sleekly designed center is a patient helipad. Trauma patients now are transported to a ground helipad near the hospital, then taken by ambulance to the emergency room.
Patients flown to Delray Medical Center will soon be an elevator ride away from the hospital’s trauma bay, eliminating the ambulance ride. The new method will cut 3-5 minutes off the transport time, according to the hospital.
“It’s truly lifesaving,” Smith said.
Delray Medical Center, owned by for-profit Tenet Health, is one of two level-one trauma centers in Palm Beach County, along with St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
On the first floor of the wing, the hospital added:
■ An expanded laboratory.
A cardiovascular clinic and rehabilitation center.
■ A pre-surgical consultation center.
■ Upgraded technology Keep up with The Post’s complete coverage of Delray Beach on its Facebook page dedicated to the city. On Facebook, search for Post on Delray Beach.
with higher-quality X-ray machines and an additional MRI scanner.
■ And a larger main entrance to the hospital with private registration rooms.
It has also switched to a more efficient tube-system throughout the hospital to transfer medicine, patient information and laboratory results, similar to the tube system you’d find at a bank, Smith said.
“In the past, you used to have runners taking material back-and-forth,” he said. “Now, you can get that information out much faster.”
There are plans to add operating rooms to the first floor in the future, Smith said.
The second floor is unused space reserved for the hospital’s future needs. The 150,000-square-foot garage adds 352 parking spots to the hospital.
The hospital e mploys 1,500 people, but, Smith said, there are plans to hire additional personnel with the expansion, although it isn’t clear yet how many jobs will be added.