Hospital seeks $19.5 million in tax funding

Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County representatives are asking for $19.5 million of the sixth-penny tax funding.

The request was divided up into three projects, which can be done separately or all together. How the hospital will proceed depends on how much will be placed on the sixth-penny tax request for the county and hospital.

“If we needed to, we could postpone a project,” MHSC CEO Irene Richardson, said.

Richardson said they want to make sure the hospital is maintained so it can continue to provide services to residents.

The first area of concern is the HVAC units, which are original to the facility when it opened in 1978.

Richardson said $7.1 million would go toward their top priority, which is renovating the operating room and includes the replacement of the HVAC unit. This will allow for better air exchanges and improve temperature and humidity levels.

“Some of those areas haven’t been updated since original construction,” Richardson said.

The second priority for the hospital is remodeling the medical imaging area and the HVAC unit that runs to it. This project is estimated to cost $5.5 million and includes the expansion of the procedure room, renovating the ultrasound rooms, updating radiology, the echocardiogram rooms and building a new dressing room and waiting area.

The hospital plans to purchase two other pieces of equipment during this project using its capital fund.

The last priority and request is to relocate the dialysis system from its current location to the basement. The current area has no room for expansion. Richardson said they initially had four dialysis chairs, but that has expanded to eight to meet demand. They anticipate needing to expand this service again. Moving this unit to the basement would allow for a 12-chair expansion and a future expansion of 16 chairs. With the expansion, the hospital would use its own funds to pay for the additional chairs and equipment needed.

The commissioners asked what would happen if the funding wasn’t approved. Richardson said they would have to wait until they saved enough money to complete the projects.

Even though there is money in the maintenance line item, most of it is designated for the central maintenance project.