Wilmington Hospital transformation gets $1.3-million boost

Wilmington Hospital is not just being expanded – it’s being “transformed,” according to Christiana Care, which has received a donation of $1.3-million from ING DIRECT to support key aspects of the $210-million project. 

The contribution from the bank headquartered in Wilmington moves the health care system closer to its goal of improving the patient experience and overall communication among patients, their families and medical professionals.

ING DIRECT CEO Arkadi Kuhlmann said the “SMART Board” technology is similar to what’s used in the banking industry to help mortgage applicants, for example, track each step in the process.  Patients and family members will have immediate access in the hospital room to information about everything from medication to the timing of doctor visits to visiting hours.

“In a sense it’s going to change the dynamics in the hospital much like it does in our industry, it changes the way we do a financial transaction,” Kuhlmann said during a ceremony at ING’s Spaarpot building in Wilmington.

“Medicine is very complicated in terms of the number of people with specialized talents that can help an individual to get better.  The communication among those individuals and with the patient and their family can be fragmented, simply because of the number of people involved,” added Christiana Care President and CEO Dr. Bob Laskowski. With the streamlined information and communication process, Laskowski said “what is from the patient’s standpoint a very simple desire – to get better and to stay that way – we can do that much more easily.”

More easily noticed now is what’s going on at the Wilmington Hospital campus – the addition of 337,000 square feet, much of which will be contained in a new nine-story tower.  The emergency department will double in size, and the front entrance and the Jefferson Street side of the hospital will be redesigned for easier access.

Construction began back in April, 2009 and the project and is is expected to be finished in 2014.