When Orange Regional Medical Center opens the doors to its new Wallkill facility in 2011, it will have a state-of-the-art birthing center and a 10-bed neonatal intensive care unit to complement it.
ORMC received the approval from the state Department Of Health in February allowing it to add the ICU to the list of services it will offer to new mothers, which also include a four-room maternity triage area, 12 private labor, delivery and drecovery rooms, two operating rooms, 23 private post-partum rooms and a well-baby nursery. Security will also be provided for the protection of newborns and new parents.
The 600,000-square-foot facility being built on 61 acres in the town of Wallkill will also offer Level 2 trauma center complete with helipad for receiving patients. “In the past, we”™ve had to take patients out of Orange County when they needed trauma care,” said Wayne Becker, vice president of new projects on a tour of the construction site last fall. “With the new accreditation, we will be able to assist trauma victims in our area without having them taken out of county.”
ORMC received approval to offer the first elective angioplasty in Orange County late last year, currently being offered at its Horton campus in Middletown. A second cardiac catheter lab has also been approved.
ORMC is in the midst of marketing its Arden Hill facility. Tony Zippo, who heads Orange County Veterans”™ Affairs, as well as numerous elected state and federal officials, are pushing to have the Department of Veterans”™ Affairs buy the hospital from ORMC.
With the possibility of the Montrose VA facility being sold to private investors, Zippo said veterans in the Hudson Valley need a facility that”™s easily accessible. “Orange County has the highest number of veterans in the area,” he said. “This would be an ideal location for all our veterans, particularly those who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
