Photo by Jason Redmond

Pam Anderson, left, Simi Valley Hospital director of women's and children's services, talks with nurse Claudia Oliveria, who is expecting, and her mother, Mercedes Guillinta, during a tour of the new tower.

Photo by Jason Redmond

At the ribbon-cutting are, from left, Scott Reiner, governing board chairman and Adventist Health senior vice president; Lori Cruze, RN; hospital President and CEO Darwin Rembolt; Nancy Kinsinger, Volunteer Guild member; Leigh Nixon, hospital foundation board member and Chamber of Commerce president; and Dr. Vipon Tandon, hospital chief of staff.

It's been several years since Kay Macario and Fran Knox sat at a nurses' station at Simi Valley Hospital.

Still, the memory of their once-cramped work space was enough to bring sounds of delight from their mouths as they toured the new Patient Care Tower during Sunday's ribbon-cutting ceremony.

"Oh, look at the size of that nursing station!" said Macario, who retired from the hospital in 2003.

"How wonderful," said Knox, who left in 2005.

"Oh my God, I can't even believe it!" Macario said as she surveyed the state-of-the-art amenities found in the private patient rooms she was shown.

The new stations and private rooms are just some of the features in the four-story, 146,000-square-foot tower, which connects to the hospital's 43-year-old building on Sycamore Drive.

The ceremony drew several hundred people to celebrate the tower's opening.

Son born at hospital

Rep. Elton Gallegly, who served as Simi Valley's first elected mayor 1982-86, remembered when his wife gave birth to their son in the hospital. Now, 39 years later, Gallegly said he was thrilled to see the new tower open.

"What a great day this is for our community," he said. "I can tell you how excited I am as a resident of this community to have a facility like this."

Gallegly's thoughts echoed similar comments from visitors touring the tower.

Marilyn Cameron, also a retired Simi Valley Hospital nurse, said she loves the new facility. "I worked here for 30 years, and it was a positive experience for those 30 years," she said.

The $75 million tower has been under construction since December 2002.

When it opens for patient care in the coming weeks — the hospital is still waiting for the state's final inspection — some of the biggest changes will be seen in the private rooms, each with a private bath; the new Level 2 neonatal intensive care unit, which will care for up to eight babies; the expanded intensive care unit, which grows from 11 beds to 24; wireless Internet access for patients and visitors; eight labor suites where mom, dad and baby can stay together through the baby's delivery until they are transferred to a postpartum room; pull-out beds in all of the rooms for family members to sleep on; and other technological innovations to make patients more comfortable and allow doctors and nurses to work better.

'More conducive to relaxing'

"I don't see how it can't create less stress" for the nurses, Knox said. "It's more conducive to relaxing. Before, it was so noisy and hectic."

It is believed that the expanded ICU will help alleviate the crowding in the emergency department, which has been plagued with capacity issues for years.

Dr. Marc Mendes, director, said the emergency department sees 24,000 patients a year and is responsible for 60 percent of the hospital's admissions.

"We have a key objective to reduce the wait time for patient care," he said during the ceremony.

Once the tower is open for patients, demolition will begin on the hospital's original building. In its place, there will be a new 7,000-square-foot lobby. Hospital officials estimate that it will take a year for construction.

At its completion, the entire overhaul will result in 201 beds, 48 more than before.

It was paid for with funds through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the hospital's parent company, Adventist Health.

— Jake Finch's e-mail address is alljake@hotmail.com.