“We can’t do the renovation without opening the ceilings, opening the walls, and at times even cutting into the ground,” said Lewis Johnson, an industrial hygienist with Fort Myers-based Lee Health, which owns Gulf Coast Medical Center. “It’s likely that we have potentially pathogenic organisms in these spaces so we are controlling their migration out.”
The hospital took several precautions during construction to protect patients from infection, including special equipment to keep the air quality clean in the facility.
“This is what I refer to as the negative air machine, and in this instance, it’s exhausting [air] to the out of doors,” Mr. Johnson said. “This is ideal because we’re taking any possible contaminants and we’re blowing [them] out.”
The hospital also inspects and cleans all tools before they are brought into the facility.
Gulf Coast Medical Center’s expansion cost about $347 million, and Lee Health has spent over $280 million on a new children’s hospital and outpatient medical campus in recent years.
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