A renovation project planned at Schneck Medical Center in Seymour received a boost with grant dollars.
During a recent meeting of the hospital’s board of trustees, Debbie Mann, vice president of finance and chief financial officer, said Schneck recently was notified by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. that it was approved to receive $1,040,001 in Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative grant funds.
The READI program was established after the state experienced four consecutive record-breaking years for job and investment commitments. To maintain this momentum and accelerate economic growth, Indiana launched the program, which will dedicate $500 million in state appropriations to promote strategic investments that will make the state a magnet for talent and economic growth, according to the IEDC.
Through this initiative, the state encouraged neighboring counties, cities and towns to partner to create a shared vision for their future, mapping out the programs, initiatives and projects that are critical for them to retain talent today and attract the workforce of tomorrow.
In late 2021, the South Central Indiana Talent Region READI team, which includes Jackson, Bartholomew and Jennings counties and the town of Edinburgh, learned it would receive $30 million in grants. That included six Jackson County projects with a cost of more than $7 million.
Initially, Schneck was going to use READI funding for a new linear accelerator at the Don and Dana Myers Cancer Center. Mann, however, said the hospital was too far into the process to meet some of the federal request standards, so the IEDC asked about other projects.
Schneck decided to apply for funding to remodel the third-floor inpatient nursing unit.
“Right now, that unit has been vacant just because of census and staffing,” Mann said. “We felt like this would be a good time to go in and make those renovations. That’s our nursing floor that’s the most outdated, doesn’t have very good efficient flow, so that will give us a chance to go and make those changes.”
The 21-bed unit is located in the portion of the hospital that was originally constructed in 1971. Mann said it has been renovated a few times since then, the last time being in 2007 when some cosmetic work was performed.
This time, the work would improve the flow, she said.
“The way that floor is laid out is not optimal for patient care and efficiency, so we’re going to fix some of that with this project, too,” she said.
The project will provide for updated finishes in each patient room and updated clinical monitoring capability.
In addition, the project is planned to increase the footprint of two rooms to better allow Schneck to comfortably accommodate patients of size.
“In four rooms, renal dialysis water connection boxes will be added, which are not currently available on that nursing unit,” Mann said. “The central core of the unit (nurses’ station, medicine rooms, storage, etc.) will be redesigned for better flow and increased efficiency. Heat and air conditioning controls in the patient rooms will be updated to digital ones with the goal of increased patient comfort.”
Mann said a timeline and a budget for the project have been submitted, so design should start soon, and construction is slated to begin in late fall.
“Because it’s federal funds, we would need to go through the process of securing vendors and getting competitive bids,” she said.
It’s estimated to be completed by the fall of 2024.
“The way the grant funds work, it’s spread over a number of years, so we don’t have to spend all of the funds by the end of the year,” Mann said.
The estimated cost of the project is $3,425,000. To go along with the READI funds, Schneck will provide $2,384,999 in matching funding to cover the remainder of the cost.
According to the IEDC, READI is expected to attract at least $2 billion of local public, private and philanthropic match funding that will propel investment in Indiana’s quality of place, quality of life and quality of opportunity.
“The intent of the grant is to make the community better, and I think we’re able to show that we’re able to do that with this project,” Mann said.
In the past, the second floor unit was used for surgery patients, and the third floor was more for medical patients. Currently, those areas have been combined.
“It has not caused any issue,” Mann said. “As we continue to grow and develop, our plan would be while it’s vacant, we’ll renovate that floor, move those patients up to the third floor and then possibly come back at some point and renovate the second floor. We’ve got some recruiting. We’ve got a general surgeon who is coming this fall, so if we start exceeding our capacity, now, we’ve got two very viable nursing floors that we could use.”