PHOTO BY CLAIRE FRANELL
Good Shepherd Medical Center is expanding to accommodate its growing Education and Wellness Department. Administrators and staff held a public ground-breaking ceremony at the hospital on Tuesday.
With this project, Good Shepherd intends to bring new opportunities for staff training and skill development and to increase its outreach in the Hermiston community.
The expansion will include a simulation lab in which staff can strengthen their critical thinking skills in real-life scenarios. Director of Education Services Juli Gregory said that the lab’s mannequins will mimic patients’ reactions (such as pupil dilation and changing heart rhythm) to different treatments.
The new portion of the department will also contain a conference room for community outreach classes and other activities.
According to Gregory, over the last few years the Education and Wellness Department staff have been involved in about 2,000 outreach classes, around 700 of which were also opportunities for staff education.
“I have never seen a small community so supportive of their hospital, and a hospital that reaches back,” she said.
“This is an exciting project for Good Shepherd Medical Center,” said Good Shepherd President and CEO Dennis Burke.
Burke commended the work that the Education and Wellness Department has already done in the Hermiston area. “The Affordable Care Act requires that hospitals assess and meet community needs,” he said. “That’s interesting because we’ve done that for years.”
Pendleton’s McCormack Construction Company and PKA Architects out of Portland will build the expansion. Construction will take an estimated 20 weeks. Good Shepherd Vice President of Human Resources Kelly Sanders said that it will likely open this November or December.
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