The ongoing Person Memorial Hospital renovation and expansion project received a big boost Tuesday when the Golden LEAF Foundation announced new grants to organizations across the state at its board meeting earlier this month.
PMH received a grant of $400,000 from the foundation for the renovation and expansion project.

Golden LEAF Foundation awarded a total of over $4.3 million in new grants statewide.

“We are extremely grateful and appreciative,” PMH Resource Development Director Carolyn Rattican said Tuesday. “This will enable us to purchase some equipment for our emergency room and surgical department that otherwise we could not have had.”

The project at PMH includes the expansion of the hospital’s surgical suite and emergency department as well as a private family waiting room and additional recovery rooms added to the surgical suite and an urgent care clinic that will offer services in addition to the current emergency room services. The project will also expand rehabilitation services and respiratory care services.

Specialty clinics have been moved to the first floor of the hospital annex. The intensive care unit at the facility is also undergoing renovations, which will make all six beds in the unit private.

The ongoing renovation and expansion project is the first significant upgrade at PMH, which was originally built in 1950, in nearly 20 years.

The current project began in January 2005 and was expected to take three years to complete.

Rattican said Tuesday that the project was “very close” to completion.