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Niswonger and Franklin Woods officials brief commissioners on bed additions, NICU and new ER planning
Summary
Health system leaders told the commission about expansions at Franklin Woods and Niswonger Children’s Hospital including 20 inpatient beds at Franklin Woods, a new NICU, a planned emergency department renovation and improvements in patient experience metrics.
Officials from Niswonger Children’s Hospital and Franklin Woods Community Hospital updated the commission on ongoing expansions and patient-experience initiatives at county medical facilities.
Chris Jett, representing Niswonger Children’s Hospital, told the commission the hospitals are planning a renovation and expansion of emergency-department space and are in the programming stage — defining size, layout and clinical needs before construction. “We are in the programming stage of that,” he said.
At Franklin Woods, leaders said construction begun in the summer will add 20 inpatient beds in a third-floor expansion; the hospitals said the additional beds should help relieve emergency-department crowding, and hospital staff expect the beds to come online by mid-fall. The Franklin Woods facility also is expanding parking and adding equipment to support growing surgical and birthing volumes.
Niswonger officials said they are building a new neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) with private rooms and family space; construction is expected to complete in December, with a move to the new unit planned about six weeks later. The hospitals reported surgical-volume increases, continued expansion of pediatric subspecialties, and external accreditations: the medical center received Level‑1 trauma certification with no findings, which hospital leaders described as a notable achievement for quality and safety.
Hospital leaders also described increased efforts to collect real-time patient feedback via online reviews and prompts at discharge; they reported a measurable uptick in average star ratings after launching the discharge-review prompts.
Hospital representatives invited commissioners to facility tours and offered to provide further details to commissioners interested in operational or capital specifics.
No commission action was required or requested at the briefing; the presentation was provided as an informational update.
