Women who give birth at Providence Health Center will have a more comfortable and convenient experience once a $6.5 million expansion and renovation project is completed, officials said.

The Waco hospital announced Thursday it is revamping its Women & Newborns Center, with a host of new features designed to better meet the needs of patients and their families.

Some of the flashier touches will include an express elevator in the lobby reserved for moms-to-be and labor room bathtubs that can accommodate water therapy.

This rendering shows what Providence Health Center will look like once a $6.5 million expansion is completed.
Providence Healthcare Network graphic

Overall, the project will update the labor and delivery area, enlarge postpartum rooms and double the size of the neonatal nursery.

All those changes will take place on the hospital’s fifth floor, where the Women & Newborns Center is located.

The project will add nearly 6,500 square feet to the hospital. Most of that new space will come in the form of an addition to the fifth floor. Supported by pillars, it will extend out from what is now the front of the facility, giving the hospital a new look.

“It enhances the appearance of the hospital, and it ties all the buildings together,” Providence CEO Kent Keahey said.

The rest of the expansion involves the first-floor lobby.

A separate room for moms-to-be and their families is being created.

It will be staffed by an employee who will act as a concierge and will have a children’s play area.

The other part of the lobby expansion will create more seating around an existing cafe.

The work is scheduled to begin in a few weeks and should take 18 months to complete, officials said. It will be done in phases to avoid interruptions in the hospital’s services.

“While we’ll still be able to provide excellent patient care, we’ll now be able to provide that excellent patient experience,” said Annette Ayers, Providence’s vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer.

Planning for the project has been in the works for two years, Ayers said. Everyone from doctors to the hospital’s janitorial staff was consulted as part of the process, she said.

One focus of the project was to make patient rooms within the center more inviting, Ayers said. For example, equipment in labor rooms will be hidden away behind cabinets, and a foldaway bed will be added to all patient rooms.

“The rooms will have a feel of a hotel rather than a clinical setting,” Ayers said.

Also, rooms will be outfitted with wireless fetal monitors, said Donna Robinson, Providence‘s director of women’s and children’s services.

Providence Healthcare Network CEO Kent Keahey announces a $6.5 million expansion to the hospital’s Women & Newborns Center on Thursday.
Jerry Larson/Waco Tribune-Herald

That will allow women more freedom to get up and move around during labor.

“Laying on your back is not always the easiest way to labor,” Robinson said. “This will be a real advantage to our patients.”

The nursery will be expanded from four to eight beds, Ayers said. It is used for babies who need extra care or monitoring.

Providence does not have a neonatal intensive care unit.

Such units treat babies who are critically ill or are born very early.

But the nursery can provide many types of short-term care, said Dr. Brian Becker, an obstetrician who is head of Providence’s medical staff.

For example, the hospital has ventilator capability for infants. It also can administer IV antibiotics to babies who have infections and treat respiratory problems, among other things, he said.

If a baby needs a higher level of care, Providence has arrangements for quick transfers to a children’s hospital, Becker said. But only 1.7 percent of babies born at Providence last year needed to be transferred, he said.

About 1,200 to 1,300 babies are delivered at Providence annually, Keahey said.

The hospital restarted its obstetrics program in 1995 after a period during which it did not deliver babies. The coming changes represent the first major expansion to the women’s and children area since then, he said.

The project is being paid for using hospital reserves and philanthropic gifts, Keahey said.

cculp@wacotrib.com

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