E.J. Noble Hospital unveils addition

GOUVERNEUR — E.J. Noble Hospital will start moving patients Monday to its addition that is being unveiled to the public today.

“This is the heart of our community,” board member Robert J. Leader, to whom the building was dedicated, said at a donor reception Thursday. “Without it, we all die.”

“It’s so important to have a hospital close by so we don’t have to travel 35 miles for care,” board Chairman Timothy J. Monroe said. “It gives us here in Gouverneur the independence to be able to do that. This is a glorious day for the folks in Gouverneur.”

The $9.5 million expansion and modernization project adds 33,000 square feet to the hospital over two floors.

The first floor includes spacious rooms for 33 beds, including six singles, some of them overlooking the Oswegatchie River. A three-bed intensive care unit includes an isolation room and a central nursing station.

Much of the ground floor space is devoted to physical and respiratory therapy, a modern pharmacy, a medical library and rooms for doctors to do their work. There will be wireless Internet connection throughout the addition.

The building, which connects to the existing complex, has parking at its rear that will ease the crunch for spaces. The area for the MRI equipment should be completed in April.

Muted earth shades of beige, gold and sage complement each other throughout the building.

An open house is being held until noon today.

“This has been a long endeavor,” Administrator Charles P. Conole said.

The hospital applied in 2006 for a certificate of need that was approved by the state Department of Health a year later. The project was put off temporarily until a state commission determined that the community needed the hospital.

The project also hit hurdles with financing because of the perennial losses of the hospital’s affiliated Kinney Nursing Home and because it started looking for money as the economy was crashing.

Another snag took place when the hospital had to spend an additional $195,000 for a system to draw water from the Oswegatchie River because of inadequate water pressure from village lines for fire sprinklers.

With most of the money spent on the addition, the hospital will handle renovation of the older part of its complex in phases and may do much of the work itself, Mr. Conole said.

Those plans will include expanding the lab, moving ambulatory surgery, shifting offices and creating call rooms for doctors. Big-ticket items include replacing the flooring and elevators.

“As we get funds, we’ll address the major expenditures,” Mr. Conole said.