By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer
St. Joseph hospital in London will begin transferring patients from the current site in downtown London to its new site on August 19.
Hospital spokesperson Sharon Hershberger said Monday the new facility will be turned over by the contractors in early June.
The new $150 million structure is about twice the size of the current building and will house 126 beds, compared with 89 in the existing structure, Hershberger said.
The new hospital’s layout will make it much more convenient for out-patients as well as in-patients.
Patients coming in for laboratory, X-ray and other testing will have a single location for that work, rather than going from department to department, she said.
Hospital services in the new facility will be essentially the same as now, with heart services, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics and typical medical care, she said.
Currently the hospital is working on expanding its staff to accommodate the increase in beds and patients. Two new family practice physicians have already been added and the search is on for more specialists, including someone in pain management.
Hershberger said for the most part, all new equipment will be installed at the new facility.
The hospital is under construction on a lot west of London that stretches from Parker Road to I-75 and will be accessed primarily from a road just west of I-75 off KY 192.
St. Joseph President Virginia Dempsey said of the project, “Our hospital will continue to provide the same nationally recognized quality care we now offer.”
All the patient rooms will be private. She said the new rooms will, “promote a relaxing and healing environment with views of our lake and park setting.”
The new hospital’s increased capacity will provide care for patients from surrounding communities, she said, adding, “thus enhancing our healing ministry and mission.”
Various community events will be scheduled prior to the hospital’s opening.
Those events will allow visitors to see the new facility prior to the move.
The hospital’s history goes back to 1926, when Dr. H.V. Pennington opened his Pennington General Hospital on the hill overlooking London where St. Joseph now stands.
It was then the only hospital between Knoxville and Lexington practicing in a building specifically built for use as a hospital.
Pennington had planned for the future in ways such as preparing for X-ray technology as it was beginning to develop. He also saw to it that an elevator was installed.
Following World War II, The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth bought the hospital in 1946 and named it Marymount Hospital. In the last couple of years, Marymount Medical Center merged with St. Joseph hospitals in Lexington and the surrounding area.
