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Sparta Hospital North Campus opening May 13

BY CHRISTI MATHIS

Saturday, May 6, 2006 11:46 PM CDT

FOR THE SOUTHERN

SPARTA - Sparta Community Hospital's new North Town Campus will be hosting a grand opening celebration May 13 with an 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting and open house and tours from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. to showcase the new 23,000 square foot facility located in the former Kroger store.

The facility brings a new age in health services to Sparta meeting the needs of area residents and the thousands of visitors who will frequent Sparta's new World Shooting and Recreational Complex, said SCH Director of Marketing and Public Relations Peter Hertzing.

"Sparta Community Hospital is very excited that we have been given another opportunity to service our community," said hospital CEO Joann Emge. "Because the public has embraced these services, they are growing. We look forward to providing quality healthcare close to home."

The new facility features a women's health center, convenient care, physical therapy, wellness center, and occupational and aquatic therapies. Some of these services will be available for the first time, others are being enlarged and improved. Convenient care is something new to SCH in response to the changing needs of the public, Hertzing said.

The convenient care facility offers health care, physicals and the like from 1-8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday courtesy of a staff including a physician, a physician's assistant and a nurse practitioner. Hertzing said the care center will be a great asset to those who don't have a regular physician, to visitors to the community and to working parents. For example, he said a parent might arrive home from work to find a child coming home ill from school or daycare and the convenient care center will allow them to access medical assistance for the child that evening without having to miss work.

Occupational therapy and aquatic therapy are premiering in Sparta at the North Town Campus too. The occupational therapy department will offer pre-employment physicals, drug screening and other occupation-related services. The aquatic therapy is expected to be quite popular as well. It's all part of the growing physical therapy department which experienced a 27 percent growth in patient visits and 21 percent increase in treatments in the past eight years.

The hospital's Center for wellness and physical therapy initially opened in November 1998 at another location with 170 members and membership had doubled by 2004 and more than 3,000 fitness visits a month were logged during peak use. The Center has been moved to the new hospital campus where quarters are much larger and nicer. According to Hertzing, the aerobics room has doubled in size and the overall area square footage is up by 30 percent.

The new fitness center offers all sorts of training equipment, a walking track and more along with a spacious mirrored aerobics room. Memberships are available for about $35 to $50 monthly depending on the number of members in the family and length of membership. That particular area of the facility will have expanded hours operating from 5:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Friday, 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday and 4-8 p.m. Sunday.

The Women's Health Care is also moving to the North Campus where they'll have seven exam/minor treatment rooms instead of the current three with care provided by a full-time ob/gyn and a full-time nurse practitioner. Hospital officials note that SCH is the only hospital in Randolph or Perry Counties offering OB Services.

The North Town Campus of SCH bears little resemblance to the grocery store it once was. After a three-year search for a new locale in which to expand, the hospital purchased the property for $900,000 and work on the $1.9 million renovation project by GRS of Columbia began in November. The glass-filled atrium greets visitors to the facility and each area has its own unique, bright, modern color scheme. Fanciful artwork festoons the walls and a cheerful atmosphere pervades the new facility.

Hospital officials said the new facility illustrates the commitment to serve the community, respond to new and ongoing needs, re-invest health care dollars into the community and assure that readily available health care if available for residents and to attract business and help assure a financially stable community. In fact, the new facility includes some additional space that will be utilized for future expansion to meet the needs of the public. Hertzing also noted that when the World Shooting and Recreational Complex opens fully for business, it will be hosting events bringing 10,000 or more to Sparta and having a modern convenient care facility is sure to be a big benefit. He said hospital officials studied Vandalia, Ohio, former longtime home of the biggest event of all, the Grand American, and the need for such a facility in Sparta was evident.

The fitness center will resume regular hours at the new location after the open house May 13 while the occupational/physical therapy, convenient care and women's health facilities will open May 15 at the SCH North Town Campus.

The opening of the North Town Campus marks the second major expansion recently for SCH. A 17,000 square foot addition to the main hospital opened last year. The $5 million expansion included a new surgical department, emergency department and covered entrance. Both projects are in keeping with the current trend toward more outpatient care and services, officials said.

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