$350.000 hospital expansion starts

A $350,000 Callaway Community Hospital renovation project will improve the hospital's emergency services and shift the main entrance from the north side to the south side of the hospital.

Allen AufderHeide, hospital chief executive officer, said the hospital plans to complete the renovation by Jan. 31, 2013.

He emphasized emergency services will continue during the renovation and visitors should use care and avoid construction zone areas.

AufderHeide said the purpose of the renovation is to provide more efficiencies in the emergency services department and to provide added convenience for patients and visitors to the hospital.

When the renovation is completed next year, the hospital's primary entrance will be moved from the north side to the current emergency services area on the south side of the hospital.

"But that move of the main entrance will not occur until the renovation is completed," AufderHeide said. "All of our patients - whether they be for emergency services, outpatients, or visitors - will enter the hospital on the current emergency services side of the complex instead of the current front entrance."

A new 2,500-square-foot structure will be added on the south side of the hospital to house a new emergency services waiting area, a new out-patient waiting area, a patient registration area, and a gift shop.

"We also will make improvements to the existing emergency services area. Curtains separating various areas will be replaced with walls and doors to provide more privacy," AufderHeide said.

The $350,000 to finance the improvements came from the same Rural Development Loan from the United States Department of Agriculture used to finance the hospital's new Kingdom Senior Solutions, a new 19-bed inpatient program for elderly patients with behavioral problems relating to the normal aging process.

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.