VCU news

By Michael Ford
University News Services

Richmond, Va. – The first sections of the $59 million, nine-level Gateway Building will open on Feb. 11, after more than two years of construction, linking the main section of MCV Hospitals with its outpatient clinics and consolidating and expanding more than a dozen functions located at several sites on the MCV Campus.

Doors will open on a first-floor patient admittance area and a ground-level food court as well as an innovative multimedia health information center that will provide print, online and video health resources for consumers. The Community Health Education Center will be one of the biggest and most-comprehensive hospital-based health information libraries for consumers in the country.

One of the key features in the Gateway Building will be a state-of-the-art imaging center. Through a partnership with General Electric Co., the imaging center will feature a positron emission tomography, or PET, scanner that can detect metabolic changes at the cellular level; a high-resolution 3.0 tesla MRI scanner and a cyclotron. The building also will include a computer-based digital imaging management system that will replace traditional patient x-rays and a telemedicine center that will allow VCU physicians to work with counterparts around the globe and treat patients remotely.

"For the first time, patients and their families will be welcomed to MCV Hospitals through one door," said Donna Katen-Bahensky, executive vice president and chief operating officer of MCV Hospitals. "Not only is this new state-of-the-art facility easy to access, more importantly it allows us to offer our patients the highest-quality medical testing and services."

VCU broke ground in September 1999 on the 215,900-square-foot Gateway Building, part of a $65 million bond package of construction projects on the MCV Campus that included expansion and renovation of several patient service areas. The projects were financed through revenue bonds approved by what was the MCV Hospital Authorities in December 1998.

Other diagnostic and treatment areas that will be housed in the Gateway Building include endoscopy/bronchoscopy, dialysis, transplant, mammography and transesophageal echocardiagram. The building also will have a blood bank; surgical pathology, pulmonary function and electrophysiology labs; and areas for minimally invasive surgery, telemedicine, short-stay and recovery. Areas will open on a staggered schedule through mid-year.