MED Could Undergo Major Renovation

(Memphis) The Board of Director’s for the Regional Medical Center has approved renovations at the hospital.

“Additional services, new facilities, a better location,” said Ken Goff, director of facility and planning for the Regional Medical Center.

With $32 million ready for use, The MED may soon get a makeover.

Med executives say three of the five floors of turner tower are used for storage space instead of patient needs.

But soon, if plans are approved by the State, Turner Tower could get 24 more patient beds, an operating room in its burn unit and something else.

“We are adding a service that The MED hasn’t had, which is an outpatient surgery center,” said Goff.

Goff, who is overseeing the expansion project, says right now, outpatient surgery is done where emergency patients are seen, so sometimes those outpatient appointments are bumped.

A new surgery center would change that.

Also, Goff says the burn unit getting an operating room is a big deal because right now the center is at capacity, “It`s the only adult burn center anywhere in our region.”

The changes are part of a larger plan.

The MED is hoping to renovate the entire hospital some day. 

It’s a project that will total more than $400 million.

For now, it’s hoping to tackle one area at a time, like the three empty floors.

“We are already geared up and ready to go and working on plans for it,” said Goff.

Because changes to a health care facility impacts an entire community, the MED has to get permission from the State to carry these plans out.

Executives say they hope to get that permission by December, with the project being completed in the next year and a half.