TICONDEROGA — The Emergency Department will quadruple in size and outpatient services will increase at Moses-Ludington Hospital once $9.1 million in renovations are finished.
The facility, which has not had major upgrades since 1981, will remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the estimated 18 months of construction.
John Remillard, president of Inter-Lakes Health-Moses Ludington and University of Vermont Health Network, Elizabethtown Community Hospital, said the project took two years from conception to Wednesday’s announcement.
He said the Board of Directors saw the trends in health care and realized “Moses-Ludington needed to change and transform itself.”
NOW AND LATER
The first step was to join a network of affiliated heath-care facilities.
“That process is under way, and eventually, Moses-Ludington Hospital will become a part of the University of Vermont Health Network, Elizabethtown Community Hospital,” Remillard said.
The second step was to apply for and win a $9.1 million State Department of Health grant to rebuild the entire hospital to meet both the current and future health-care needs of the clients in its service communities.
He said that when funding contract hit a snag, Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) was instrumental in getting the money released, once again supporting and coming through for her constituency.
'HUGE DIFFERENCE'
The state senator, on hand for the ceremony Wednesday, said health care has changed quite a bit since she took office 22 years ago, and she was excited to see the renovations will help Moses-Ludington meet those changing needs.
More and more outpatient services are being performed to shorten or avoid hospital stays, she noted.
“Ticonderoga is uniquely situated: it’s a long way from anyplace else when it comes to having more health-care tests done or blood work,” Little said. “To be able to have up-to-date, new and efficient (facilities) is going to make a huge difference in this community.
“They’re even talking about having an MRI come here on certain days,” she said.
“People won’t have to travel 40 or 50 miles for those things.”
BIGGER, BETTER
The facility’s five major departments will be modernized and improved: the Emergency Department will be four times bigger with a four-bed observation area, and there will be a new X-ray Department, laboratory, pharmacy and rehabilitation department with physical-therapy services.
But the first section finished will be a visiting-specialists lounge for the physicians coming from the University of Vermont Health Network member hospitals to perform procedures, Remillard said.
That work will take six months, and the new Emergency Department is expected to be in use by April 2018, he said.
RIGOROUS SUPPORT
Rolly Allen, Inter-Lakes Health Board of Directors president, became emotional in speaking about Little’s ongoing rigorous support for the project, saying he didn’t think construction would even begin with so many obstacles in their path along the way and over the years.
But Little “has been wonderful,” he said. “She has been the one that has looked after this place and made it better and helped us.”
Allen told the senator she may be small in stature, “but you are a big person in my estimation.”
Email Denise A. Raymo:
Twitter: @DeniseRaymo
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