Porter renovates antiquated units

Author: Kelly Janis

While it might not rank high on a list of students' preferred destinations, Porter Medical Center is "interconnected with the College on many levels," according to Ronald G. Hallman, the hospital's Vice President of Development and Public Relations. In fact, said Hallman, "The very roots of Porter Hospital are tied to Middlebury College."

The town's medical hub was built in the 1920s on land which is, to this day, owned by the College. Construction was funded by a donation from College Trustee William Henry Porter. In a letter proposing the project he wrote "it has long been my desire that Addison County and vicinity should have the facilities of a first-class hospital, and it has also been my desire that Middlebury College should have an infirmary. It has seemed to me that the two purposes might be combined in one institution."

Though the conjunction of these two purposes has naturally dissolved, the link between the College and hospital has not.

"We continue to interface on a number of levels," said Hallman.

Ample evidence of this assertion is the fact that when Porter set out to undertake a massive $16.4 million capital project, Middlebury College shelled out $1 million to further the cause. "That's something we're extremely grateful for," said Hallman.

Now, the fruits of this donation and others like it manifest themselves in the hospital's nearly completed "North Project," a 29,000 square feet effort which serves, by Hallman's analysis, "to get Porter up-to-date for the 21st century" and ensure that the hospital "is able to take care of as much here locally as possible without sending people outside the community."

At the crux of the project is the reconstruction and modernization of the hospital's surgery department and the creation of the area's first state-of-the-art birthing center. Both facilities opened to great fanfare last November and have garnered rave reviews from those who have been served by them.

"Anecdotally, people are just thrilled," said Hallman. Porter has long been committed to upgrading its infrastructure. The hospital renovated its medical and surgical unit in 1994 and constructed a new emergency department and radiology wing in 1996. The "North Project," however, was unprecedented in its scope.

Such a bold venture was not in vain. Many of the hospital's key structures had grown notably antiquated, threatening the hospital's ability to both provide patients with appropriate care and hold its own against other medical centers in the region.

"We really couldn't have 30-year old facilities," Hallman explained. "The surgical department, for example, was designed back in the 1970s when we had two surgeons at Porter. Today, we have 20 surgeons, and they were using the same facilities. So obviously, that was not adequate."

Similar inadequacies plagued the maternity unit, which Hallman said "was designed at a time when fathers weren't very involved in the birthing scene. Women didn't really shop around like they do today for birthing center facilities." As a consequence, "we really found ourselves in a deficit in terms of hospitals in the area that were offering state-of-the-art family-centered birthing centers. We had an old-fashioned maternity department where woman were literally moved four different times during the process of giving birth."

Those days have long since passed. According to the 2006 edition of Porter Medical Center's "Annual Report to the Community," the dedication of the new wing and the opening of the surgical care and birthing centers "was the 'defining moment' of 2006 for our community hospital, representing years of planning, fundraising, construction and hard work by many individuals."

Hallman can attest to this hard work. "We spent literally four years planning this project and going through the regulatory approval process and going through the designs. We just spent thousands and thousands and thousands of hours working on it. So that is the hard part. The good part of that is once you start building it, there are not a lot of surprises. Because you've looked at it, re-looked at it, looked at it one more time and basically have looked at it every possible way."

The project's loose ends are being tied as the hospital's lab and pharmacy undergo minor expansion, and a landscaped garden and courtyard are installed. Once these tasks are complete, Porter can relish in the realization of its goal.

"The new Birthing Center and Surgical Care Center represents major steps forward for Porter Hospital in fulfilling our community mission of providing the highest level of quality medical care through outstanding staff and state-of-the-art facilities," announced Porter President James L. Daily in a press statement released in conjunction with the birthing center's unveiling and dedication in November. "Porter Hospital and our community now have the newest surgical facilities and birthing center facilities in the State of Vermont, and we are extremely proud of this project and gratified by the outpouring of community support," said Hallman.

As a whole, "the renovations have been great for the staff," said Birthing Center Manager Kathy Hoxsie.

Maternity Ward Employee Vicki Kirby concurs with this sentiment. "It's been a very beneficial change," said Kirby, noting the center's spaciousness and comfortable atmosphere. The facility's arrangement makes cleaning a cinch, which is good for our backs."

Patients, too, have voiced enthusiastic feedback with regard to the rooms equipped with tables, chairs, tapestries and private bathrooms. Because of the center's extensive accommodations, over 95 percent of the 300 to 400 babies born in the hospital each year are able to stay in their mother's rooms rather than being housed in a separate nursery.

"Parents love it," said Kirby. "It's very family-oriented and home-like."

Employees laughed good-naturedly when recalling a new mother who likened the facility to a "luxury motel" and worried that she would be charged extra when she was relocated to a new room with all of the amenities.

The facility isn't just aesthetically savvy. "Although the rooms are home-like in appearance, they have all of the necessary equipment," Hallman said as he slid back a painting on the wall to reveal a hidden store of resuscitation mechanisms.

"When I go back to our old unit, it looks dismal by comparison," Kirby said.

Never again will patients or staff need to contend with such dismal displays. "We were very pleased with the final product. Overall, it went phenomenally well," said Hallman. "I think that the vast majority of healthcare needs for this community can be met here now."