Construction crews ‘top out’ Phoebe’s new Trauma & Critical Care Tower

ALBANY — Construction crews building the new Trauma & Critical Care Tower on the campus of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital celebrated the “topping out” of the project Tuesday morning. Workers signed the building’s final and highest steel beam and placed an American flag and an evergreen tree on it before it was hoisted into place by a huge crane that has been on the site since May.

“This is an exciting milestone for a vital project that will help Phoebe enhance the level of emergency, trauma and critical care available to the people of southwest Georgia, and we look forward to the day we can begin serving patients in this wonderful new facility,” Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital CEO Deb Angerami said.

Following the placement of the beam, Hoar Construction, the project’s general contractor, served lunch to its more than 225 employees who are working on the project.

“We are extremely proud to be handling this project, which we know will mean so much to this community,” Hoar Senior Superintendent David Howe said. “Phoebe has been a great partner with us, and our crews have been working really hard and doing outstanding work. It’s nice to take a few minutes to thank them, give them some gifts and recognize this milestone before we get back to work.”

The first floor of the new tower will house an emergency and trauma center. The current emergency center also will be completely renovated to create one large, seamless, advanced center.

“We provide life-saving trauma care every day, and we are excited that our new facility will help us expand our trauma capabilities,” Dr. Leon Dent, Phoebe’s medical director for trauma services, said. “We continue to grow our trauma team by recruiting additional trauma specialists as we prepare to seek state designation as a Level II Trauma Center from the Department of Public Health and verification by the American College of Surgeons.”

In addition to an expanded emergency and trauma center, the new four-story tower also will include a neonatal intensive care unit and an adult intensive care unit. The fourth floor will be reserved for future growth and development.

“As part of the topping out, we also invited the Phoebe Family to sign sheetrock that will used as interior work progresses,” Angerami said. “Our emergency and trauma, NICU and critical care teams signed panels that will be placed in their new areas, and other employees were invited to sign panels that will be placed on the fourth floor. We hope that symbolic gesture will help them feel a permanent connection to this place where we know they will provide so much exceptional care and superior service in the years to come.”

Construction on the tower is scheduled for completion by late next summer with move-in to follow in stages over the ensuing few months.

Special Photo: PhoebeStaff Photo: Phoebe