The dawning of the new millennium brought unprecedented growth and expansion—and also built on the hospital’s compassionate philosophy of care. In 2000, the Geriatric Evaluation and Management Unit opened for patients ages 75 and older who require short-term inpatient care. Also that year, the Carroll County Cancer Center began to offer comprehensive outpatient cancer services, including radiation therapy. The next year, a new oncology unit opened to provide both inpatient and outpatient care within one area of the hospital.
The year 2003 marked many milestones. The hospital had more inpatient admissions, outpatient surgeries and emergency department visits than ever before. To reflect its transformation to a comprehensive hospital center with state-of-the-art technology and a broad range of specialized care, a name change to Carroll Hospital Center was in order. What’s more, the largest expansion project in the hospital’s history was well underway.
As part of the expansion, a new, 30,000-square-foot emergency department opened to serve an average of 140 patients a day. With 37 separate treatment areas, private rooms, spacious waiting areas, streamlined triage and the latest in medical technologies, the facility fosters effective, efficient care and aims to make patients and family members as comfortable as possible.
Later that year, another centerpiece in the hospital’s expansion project was nearly complete—a five-story inpatient bed tower that offers private, spacious rooms in a setting reminiscent of a luxury hotel. The bed tower houses three, 24-bed units for intermediate care, general surgery and oncology patients. What makes these units even more special is that they are designed to promote a revolutionary concept of care. The private rooms are divided into pods of four off a main corridor. Within each pod are all the medication and supplies needed to support patients in those four rooms. These details bring nurses closer to the bedside than ever before and result in more time to care for patients.
As part of the redevelopment effort, strides also have been made to bring specialized outpatient services closer to home. In 2005, the hospital opened its beautifully designed, state-of-the-art outpatient center, which features programs in pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation, wound care and diabetes. It also houses an anticoagulation clinic.
Today, the hospital offers its community 200 beds and a team of more than 400 skilled physicians who represent over 35 medical specialties. On the horizon for the future are completion of a new inpatient hospice facility; expansion of the operating rooms, post anesthesia care unit and pharmacy; renovation of the level II special care nursery and expansion of radiology services and equipment.
All of these events—and many more too numerous to mention—have made Carroll Hospital Center the exceptional institution it is today. We are proud to support the medical needs of our community with the latest in technology, the finest in medical care and a commitment to making each patient the center of everything we do. We look forward to many more years of service and growth as we continue to fulfill the vision that began more than 40 years ago.