Backus marks ER expansion milestone
PrintNORWICH — The final beam for The William W. Backus Hospital’s Emergency Department expansion was hoisted on Dec. 15.
A brief “beam signing ceremony” marked the occasion, before a crane carried the beam up to its final destination.
Backus President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas P. Pipicelli, Board Chairman Richard Strouse and other members of senior administration signed the beam.
The $50 million project includes doubling the size of the Emergency Department, enhancing Surgical Services, updating patient rooms and adding more private rooms, adding a new pharmacy and upgrading technology for cancer care.
The project began in July and is expected to be complete by the summer of 2007. Some aspects of the project will be completed much earlier – for example, the new pharmacy and the addition of a second linear accelerator for cancer treatment will be finished in 2006.