ELLSWORTH — Good news for those having surgery at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital — the south wing where you’ll be staying has undergone a makeover. The inpatient experience is much better,” said Doug Jones, hospital president and CEO. “In many respects, we virtually gutted the wing.”

The hospital also has invested $2.7 million in imaging technology.

Workers on Tuesday prepare to hoist new MRI unit aloft so that it can be lowered through the roof of Maine Coast Memorial Hospital’s MRI building. PHOTO BY JANE SANDERSON

On Tuesday, Maine Coast Memorial took delivery of its new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, one of two new scanners being installed. The new unit provides far greater image resolution than the five-year-old MRI it replaces. The more immediately readable image cuts down on interpretation time and improves treatment. It will be operational in four weeks. In the interim, MRIs are being performed in a mobile unit at the front entrance.

In the fall, MCMH will install a new 64-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner unit. Like the MRI scanner, the CT unit provides diagnosticians with anatomical images of patients. One primary difference between the two is that the MRI uses magnets and the CT uses X-rays.

The hospital saved more than $1 million by purchasing two units as a package from Philips Medical Systems.

Earlier this year, the south wing project began with the installation of a new roof and kept expanding, Jones said.

The need for a new roof n the south wing opened the opportunity to give the entire wing a facelift. PHOTOS BY JENNIFER OSBORN

“It gave us a chance to essentially rebuild that part of the hospital,” he said.

The change has improved morale for patients and employees, who were staying and working in a circa-1970s interior, hospital officials said.

“The whole wing had a beautiful facelift,” said Barbara Beal, vice president for nursing.

The wing has been painted and retiled in soft, modern hues. Corridor lighting, ceiling tiles and handrails have been replaced. Doors have been refinished. The hospital enhanced its patient call system and installed structural fireproofing.

A completely handicapped accessible patient room has been created.

With facelift included refreshing the hallways with new handrails, lighting and ceiling tiles.

Midway down the wing, Jones proudly pointed to the “Dr. Wyshak memorial sink,” a handwashing station built into the wall that Dr. Patricia Wyshak pushed for, Jones said.

Jones said the doctor made a “valid point,” in saying the hallway sink makes it easier for staff to wash hands after dealing with each patient.

Workers installed wider windowsills in the patient rooms, providing more space to hold get well flowers. Closets were added to each room to stow belongings.

Brighter windows and in room closets enhanced the patient rooms.

Debi Murphy, nurse manager, said an especially “wonderful” feature of the renovation has been the creation of a new nurses lounge. The lounge has a table and chairs and a locker for each nurse.

A linen closet was built into the walls at the end of the wing farthest away from the nurse’s station and the supply closet. This saves unnecessary trips if all that’s needed is a change of sheets or extra towels, Murphy said.

Hospital employees do try to make patient stays more bearable.

Murphy recalled a patient in the hospital for six weeks while his leg was in traction. He read, watched movies and was getting quite bored. Then one of the staff hung a hummingbird feeder outside the hospital room window, which provided hours of entertainment.

If a hospital stay is necessary, it should at least be comfortable, the group concurred.

The wing “does have an altogether different feel to it,” said Don Baril, the hospital’s director of public relations and development.