New Hospital Era Nears ■>

(From Page 1) program will cost $25 million of which $1.5 million is ^>eing raised through public contributions. The balance of the $25 million has been financed through the sale of tax exempt bonds. Originally, a $33 million program was planned but the total was reduced $8 million because of two measures that were taken. One was a cost containment program of.hospital administration,, medical staff, employees and the Board of Governors. The other combined a unique method used for financing with the types of bonds that were issued. PHASE ONE OF the fund campaign has raised $860,000 under the director of Campaign Chairman Robert J. Smeltzer, director of Cape May City’s department of civic affairs. Phase Two will take place this_ i summer when the balance, $740,000, is expected to be raised in an eight week period in solicitations of year round and summertime residents. The prime feature of the expansion and modernization program will be the patient tower that will house 132 new patient beds including a modern 16 bed intensive and coronary care unit and an expanded, modern surgery suite. Overall, there will be an increase of 68 beds from 171 to 239, enabling the hospital to meet present and future hospital care needs. The patient tower, to be built on the east side of thepresent structure, will provide needed space on the ground floor for ancillary support services and storage. The first floor will include a modern and expanded surgical department, containing three surgical suites, an endoscopy room and a recovery room; a new entrance to the hospital; new admissions offices and a new location for the auxiliary’s “Cheeri-Comer.” ON THE SECOND floor will be the modern intensive and coronary care unit and a 24 bed “step down unit” for patients who require monitoring but who do not need the special nursing care provided in the intensive and coronary care unit. The third and fourth floors will each contain 56 modern patient beds with the majority contained in semi-private rooms. Included also will be a multi-million dollar expansion of the hospital’s energy plant. The tower is structurally designed to be expanded still another three floors as the county population growth continues. Each new floor will be able to accommodate another 46 patient beds.

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Published by the Seowove Corp.. P.O. Box 484, Cope May, N.J. 06204, at the second section ol the Cope Moy County Herald and the Lower Township Lantern.

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Editor Jacob Schood Jr Gonoral Manager Bonnie Remo Home Economist Florence Heal lt*3 S»o»»ov Cofp All right! rterved All propwty right* tor tho ootlro coot on t* ot thl* ‘ ‘1 bo tho property ot the Seowore Corp I moy bo reproduced without prior

THIS IS a drawing of the Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hoapital'n new patent tower for which ground wan broken recently ai. part of the hoapltal'a 125 million expannlon and modernlzatlorvprogram.

Once the tower is completed, a chain reaction of expansion and modernization of present facilities will take place. Two segments of the hospital situated in its oldest portion and containing 64 patient beds will be eliminated. The remaining patient rooms will be modernized and brought up to present design standards. THE EMERGENCY ROOM, which attends 22,000 patients a year, half of them in the summer months alone, will be doubled in size and a new cardiac-trauma treatment room and two emergency medical treatment rooms will be added. The emergency room is now staffed by an 11 member medical team under the supervision of Dr. Gus Engstrom and Dr. Richard Wagner who is the president of the American Medical Association Board of Emergency Medicine. Patient and family waiting areas will be enlarged and several medical service departments such as radiology, respiratory therapy, physical therapy and others will be expanded to meet present and predicted patient care needs. "When the project is completed," Smeltzer said, “it will mean that Cape May County’s small rural hospital will have grown into a modern full service general hospital which our growing county so sorely needs." WHEN'THE HOSPITAL was founded three decades ago by Burdette Tomlin, a local businessman, Cape May County was still considered a rural region. The hospital opened its doors with 56 employees and licensing for 65 beds. Now there are 500 workers and 171 beds with a medical staff of more than 100 physicians. Population growth in the last decade has placed strong demands on the hospital. During that period the county’s population jumped 44.2 per cent from 59,554 to 85,900. More than 50 per cent of the residents of Cape May

County are 65 and older. Only one other county in the state — Ocean — has a larger senior. citizen population percentage. Another influencing factor in the population growth has been the arrival of casino gambling in Atlantic City, causing many new employees there to seek residence in Cape May County. Neighboring Atlantic County is already crowded with a population approaching 200,000. New residents, seeking domicile elsewhere, are heading south to Cape May County. Summer population increases

manifold, placing great stress on existing facilities. During the summer it often has been necessary to postpone elective surgery due to the overwhelming volume of summer patients admitted through the emergency room. (On the cover: Robbi Sikora, head nurse of the cmerKcnc) room, and Carol Donovan, R.N., In the rear, rush a patient for medical attention at Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital. Scenes like this will be repeated this summer as Cape May County’s only hospital prepares for major expansion and modernixation program.)

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CAPE COUNTY MAGAZINE 3