By By MaryClaire Foster
Atmore Community Hospital began work on renovations to the facility’s elevators and some of its mechanical doors last week.
The elevators are about 43 years old and are still in working order, but are not up to recent code changes enforced by the state.
Hospital Administrator Bill Perkins said that the projected cost of the renovations is $179,000.
Unlike other upcoming renovations at the hospital, the elevator upgrade is mostly an out-of-pocket expense, with some help from the Escambia County Hospital Authority.
Work began on one of the two elevators this past week. The elevator car was removed and construction on the replacement will begin next week.
To replace both elevators, it is expected to take six to 10 weeks.
Coffman said what is expected to take the longest with the construction is the moving of the left elevators entrance.
The change will result in a 90-degree turn to the right for the left elevator’s entrance, facing it towards the radiology waiting room.
Coffman said the elevators will be state-of-the-art and the only thing that will remain of the old elevators are the hydraulic lines because they are cemented in.
The mechanical doors at the entrance of the emergency room and outpatient services are being changed to be more handicarp accessible. The doors will now automatically open from the outside and have a push button opening mechanism for the inside.
Perkins said he does not expect the elevator work to be too much of a disruption to the day-to-day operations at the hospital, mostly some noise that the patients and staff will be subjected to.