Thousands tour tower

Although the new patient tower at Baltimore Washington Medical Center officially opened this morning, hospital staff and operations will continue to move in over the coming weeks.

It's taken 18 months and close to $1.85 million to plan the move into eight-story tower. The hospital hired a consultant, moving staff and extra medical workers to ensure the shift of operations was timely.

"I'm very pleased people have been tremendously dedicated to the process and people are very dedicated to the team," said Sue Ward, hospital vice president. "We really did not have enough time to plan a move of this magnitude."

Yesterday, an estimated 2,000 people took a first look at the completed floors of the tower. Reactions ranged from local pride and to a hope that it will help centralize health care.

"It's nice so far," said Ted Leatherwood of Severn while waiting in line to have a cholesterol reading on the second floor. "It's closer to where we live than where I go now and if I could just get my doctor to work out of here we'd be fine."

Hospital staff worked on a carefully constructed time table that accommodated the transfer of thousands of items required to get a hospital up and running. They established weekly and monthly goals to make sure each task was completed.

On Friday, some of the biggest single pieces of equipment made the move from the old building, three 1-ton hyperbaric oxygen chambers. The chambers are used in treatment of stubborn wounds.

"It's like a big jigsaw puzzle and it became our road map," Ms. Ward said.

The move will continue in phases, every 10 days through Feb. 22, officials said.

"It's the easiest and hardest right now," Ms. Ward said. "It's the easiest because it's the out-patients, but it's the hardest because it's the first move and we will get better with each subsequent move."

Ms. Ward said hospital managers huddled to make sure everyone was ready to move into the building's first floor.

Now up and running are the new lobby, sleep center, out-patient infusion program and wound and hyperbaric oxygen program. Next up are the clinical floors, followed by the obstetrics unit in September.

The top two stories of the tower won't open immediately, instead being held for future development.

"At this point it's very fluid," said Ms. Ward.

George and Mary Helen Steg of Pasadena have lived in the area for 49 years, and said they were proud of how far the hospital had come since it opened as North Arundel Hospital in the 1960s.

"Our daughter had mumps and measles at the same time and they had to treat her in a car," said Mrs. Steg. "To see them come from that to this is a miracle."