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ORANGE PARK – The Orange Park Medical Center’s new five-story patient tower is complete and ready to house more patients, using its increased technical abilities to improve the standard of care.

“It’s been in design and development stages for several years,” said Lisa Valentine, Chief Executive Officer. “We’ve been under construction for almost two years now, so it’s been a long process of bringing online a good project that’ll help us serve our community even better.”

The tower was part of a $126 million expansion project.

The new tower will have 48 new inpatient surgical beds on the fourth and fifth floors. The total number of beds in the new building will be 96. The tower will house patients requiring care post-surgery and those suffering from other illnesses.

“One of the biggest benefits is that this tower has so many technological advances that allow the physicians and nurses to focus on the patient; put them at the center of care and to share treatment information real time, right there at the center of the room so they can spend more time with the patient explaining things and developing a treatment plan,” said Brad Shumaker, the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer. “For example, each of the TVs is able to display X-Ray images, MRIs, etc and also show all of the laboratory results. So really, it’s an interconnected system that allows for a multi-disciplinary approach to the patient at the bedside. We think that’s an innovative model of care and really excited about that.”

The rooms have AppleTV integrated with advanced Wi-Fi. The AppleTV integration also allows for the television displays in the rooms to serve as medical smartboards where patients and medical providers can provide information pertinent to them. The community that the hospital serves stands to benefit from the new tower and what it offers.

“I think that this expansion allows OPMC to provide specialized serves, serve more members of the community,” Shumaker said. “We can offer just about anything a patient could need from a surgical or a medical standpoint right here in the community in a very comfortable setting that’s fresh and light; I think it’s a win for them.”

Patients also may benefit from other therapeutic parts of their stay. With the height and design of the tower, they will be able to see the sunrise in the morning and sunset in the evening.

“One of the things you’ll see on this new unit is that it’s light, it’s bright with lots of windows,” Valentine said. “The colors are soothing and calming and all of that leads to a better healing process, I believe.”

With everything the new wing offers, Orange Park has stepped up its ability to provide top-notch patient care.

“To provide a more holistic view of care is really the future,” said Shumaker. “To focus on the environment, comfort and things you take for granted…is really what we’re going for.”