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Outside of Clark Regional Medical Center on Tuesday, Sept. 26, several community officials and hospital staff gathered for a special occasion.

A groundbreaking ceremony occurred, recognizing an expansion of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that will allow the hospital to continue optimizing its patient care at its location on Hospital Drive.

“This is a milestone in our journey to bring progress, innovation and betterment of the community,” said Matt Smith, the CEO of Clark Regional Medical Center. “The construction has started on a $4 million project, which will be called the ICU expansion.”

Specifically, the expansion will allow for six new beds to be added, nearly doubling the number to fourteen.

Also, shell space for a new surgical suite, which will enable Clark Regional to expand surgical operations as the communities’ needs demand, is included.

The goal, Smith mentioned, is for construction to be completed in time for patients to start receiving care by February or March of 2024.

As mentioned, many local officials were in attendance.

Winchester City Commissioner Kenny Book, Mayor JoEllen Reed and Clark County Magistrate Steve Craycraft were among them.

“I do love Clark [ Regional Medical Center]. I love Clark Regional with all my heart,” Reed said, adding that she was born at one of the hospital’s former locations and that the hospital tended to her family previously.

Others to speak included Dr. Bruce Kostelnik, the medical director for the emergency department at Clark Regional.

“This hospital has grown so much in the eight years that I’ve been here at this facility, and honestly, it’s been very exciting to be a part of some of the growth,” Kostelnik said. “Where we currently keep our inpatient doctors very, very busy, our ICU stays fairly full. We commonly see the need to transfer patients outside of our hospital this will add six more beds for us to keep patients right here.”

Dr. Twana Hatton, a Hospitalist at Kentucky Hospitalists Group who works with CRMC and is also a family medicine specialist, spoke of the benefits from a different perspective.

“The worst thing to do is when I have somebody from my community come [into] the hospital, and I tell them I don’t have any beds because I’m full and they have to go somewhere else. It’s very disheartening for me,” Hatton said. “Now…I can keep more of my family and more of my friends and more of my community right here next to me so I can control their care.”

Just before photos were taken of different officials symbolizing the groundbreaking by putting on construction helmets and shoveling a small patch of dirt, Cliff Wilson – CEO of Georgetown Community Hospital and market president of Lifepoint Health in central Kentucky – also spoke.

“One of our primary focuses has been around creating a cohesive market to advance our mission of making communities healthier,” Wilson said. “Unification for us means that we are working together to better share resources, provide care for all patients in any of our four facilities, and ambulatory practices. That means that adding capacity [to] one of our four hospitals helps the entire market.”

The expansion will help Clark County as well.

“So many Kentucky communities do not have direct access to high-quality medical care like we have here in Clark County,” Reed said. “How very fortunate we are.”