By Josey Meats, The Wenatchee World, Wash. The Tribune Content Agency
Quincy Valley Medical Center's new building, estimated at 49,000 square feet, is approximately 22.5% larger than the current QVMC, Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Quincy.
Editor's note: This is part two of an exclusive series looking behind the curtain at the new Quincy Valley Medical Center. The first ran in December's WVBW.
QUINCY - Joe Kunkel and Tom Richardson were leading the tour in October. Just inside the new Quincy Valley Medical Center building, a cacophony of saws and sanders whirled around us. A Post-Register photographer said something like, "Woah, nice and grand." To which Richardson replied, "Yeah, a little bit grand. A little bit."
Kunkel led the tour from the main entrance to the outpatient clinic to the right of the front lobby. The outpatient clinic was the most complete portion of the facility when the tour was given. It is home to nine exam rooms, each with a window that lets in natural light. At the time of the tour, the flooring was being put in, something that both Kunkel and Richardson were excited about. "So behind the nurses' station will be doctor's offices and a large procedure room," Richardson noted.
The tour moved through the clinic's waiting room to the wound therapy department.
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Quincy Valley Medical Center's new nurses station under construction Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Quincy.
"We have wound therapy in the current facility, but they are sharing space with infusion," Richardson said. "So they (wound therapy and infusion providers) are pretty excited to have their own dedicated space."
Four rooms will be dedicated to wound therapy treatment. Across the hall, two infusion bays will also have their own space. Kunkel noted that four exam rooms in the new facility will include ceiling lifts to assist patients who need help being moved onto exam tables.
"It's like a big sling," Richardson said. "You can pick someone up, like out of a wheelchair, and move them to where they need to be in the room."
The tour continued to a "back of the house" area for providers, as described by Kunkel. Down the hall are the pharmacy and a patient counseling room, followed by the imaging department, which includes an X-ray room, a CT room, and a CT control room.
"The important thing is how close the CT room is to the ER," Kunkel said. "The CT scan is the most used piece of imaging equipment used for ER treatment."
The emergency room will have seven rooms: six for treatment and one for trauma care. One room can serve as a behavioral health emergency room, equipped with drop-down doors to prevent access to materials that could harm patients or others.
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Quincy Valley Medical Center's new building under construction Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Quincy.
"It can be used for anybody as a treatment room," Kunkel said. "But if you do have a behavioral health patient, there is a way to make it safe."
The ER will also feature decontamination showers.
"Before we had to roll in a trailer that had the showers on them," Richardson said. "Now if someone gets sprayed with pesticides or something like that, they can come right in here and shower, change, and come right into the ER for an exam."
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Quincy Valley Medical Center's new helipad under construction Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Quincy. The entire pad and connecting walkway can be heated in the winter months.
The ER will have two entrances: a walk-in/drop-off area on the western side and an emergency vehicle pull-up on the eastern side. The ambulance bay can accommodate two ambulances at a time and includes a heated slab to prevent ice and snow buildup in winter. Overhead plug-ins allow ambulances to connect to power while parked.
Quincy Valley Medical Center's new building under construction Tuesday, Oct. 15, in Quincy.
The ambulance bay connects to a helicopter landing pad for quick airlifts in emergencies. Outside, a separate structure will house MRI and PET scan machines.
Upstairs, the second floor features eight inpatient treatment rooms and six offices, which can be converted into treatment rooms if needed. The inpatient rooms are designed for comfort, with supply cupboards accessible without entering the room, spacious areas for visitors, and large windows for natural light. These rooms will allow Quincy residents to recover from medical procedures, like surgery in the comfort of their community, close to family, according to Kunkle.
The tour ended where it began, at the grand entrance, with one last stop: the physical therapy area, located to the left of the front desk. Physical therapy, currently off-campus, will have a new home in the facility, complete with a therapy pool equipped with a treadmill and integrated technologies to monitor patient movement.
As of early December, work on the facility was ongoing. With a move-in date set for spring 2025, the new Quincy Valley Medical Center is poised to become a vital resource for the community.