The health system plans to invest more than $40 million in local construction and renovations to support the projects, which include relocating the hospital’s obstetric, gynecological, and neonatal services to a state-of-the-art women’s center on the 4th floor of the Rust Tower belongs.
“Our women’s health services within the hospital will be expanded from their current location in one of the original medical center wings to a modern, centralized area in the heart of the main campus,” said Dr. Don McKinley, ob-gyn and ob-gyn serves as Medical Director for the Health System’s Women’s Health Program. “This will not only be a source of pride for our caregivers and providers, but also for our community and the patients we serve.”
This investment demonstrates the healthcare system’s commitment to patient- and family-centric care for women and newborns, providing state-of-the-art obstetrics and newborn care in one location.
“The new women’s health services space at UNC Health Southeastern Medical Center will bring a much-needed modernization by including delivery, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms for a more comfortable experience for expectant parents,” said Renae Taylor, Vice President of UNC Health Southeastern President and Chief Nursing Officer.
In a further project phase, the outpatient clinics from three locations will be combined into one.
“This will deliver much-needed efficiencies and support women at all stages of life,” Taylor said. “It will also support collaboration between caregivers as we provide comprehensive obstetric and gynecological care in our community.”
UNC Health Southeastern’s women’s health program has experienced significant growth over the past five years, all of which has led to this major facility modernization project.
“The expansion of our program included the addition of seven obstetricians and the continued development of our collaborative midwifery service,” added Dr. McKinley added. “Several of our OB/GYNs are capable of providing robotic gynecologic surgery. With the support of UNC Health, we will continue to provide high-risk midwifery services, also known as maternal/fetal medicine, and have established the leading rural midwifery addiction program in the state to meet the urgent needs of our community.
In order to meet all the plans of the women’s health initiative, the relocation of several clinics to new locations within the health system is planned. Details will be announced as the project progresses. UNC Health Southeastern Day Spa will be closing on June 7th to allow Rehabilitation Services to return to Fayetteville Road location and make the 3rd floor of Southeastern Health Park available for the new location of the Combined Women’s Health Clinics. Individuals with day spa gift cards should contact Mike Jimenez at (910) 671-5000 extension. 5861 or [email protected].
“We recognize that this project will result in some areas and services being suspended, in most cases temporarily, but we look forward to the end results and what this will mean for our community, not just expectant mothers and their children, but also for them.” said Chris Ellington, President/CEO of UNC Health Southeastern. “This project has been a long time coming for these patients and this community, and we stand ready to make the efforts needed to ultimately improve these services.”
dr McKinley added that the commitment of the UNC Health Southeastern Board of Trustees and Administration to women’s health is great, especially now with the construction of a new high-tech, modern women’s health unit and a new outpatient facility to improve the health of all women’s programs under a roof.