Lisa Fitzsimmons, the service line administrator for surgical services, leads a tour of Memorial Hospital’s new South Tower, part of a $300 million-plus expansion and renovation project that will bring the latest technology to the Chattanooga hospital.If You GoThe open house for Memorial’s South Tower is from 1 to 4 p.m. today.The hospital will provide a cardiac risk assessment, blood pressure and body mass index screenings and peripheral artery disease screenings.Memorial’s orthopedic surgeons will provide tours of the new operating rooms.You can also attend three free classes: cardiac surgery at 1:30, controlling cardiac risk at 2:30, and wireless heart monitoring at 3:15.
The main bulbs in the operating room dimmed Friday afternoon, but a pair of lights persisted.
On the ceiling hung two neon rings, glowing and green. And from flat-screen monitors — some on the walls, some on equipment, six in all — a loop of nature scenes played. Here is a waterfall in a forest. Now here is another waterfall in another forest.
“When a patient rolls into the room,” said Lisa McCluskey, Memorial Health Care System’s vice president of marketing and communications, “this is what they see.”
Soft music, meanwhile, hummed through the new South Tower Surgical Suite. If Sharper Image added an extra room to its store, a room where they happen to slice your chest open and tinker with your heart, this would be that room.