Base Hospital Gets A Makeover More Efficient After Thorough Remodeling

The hallways were dim, the wiring was old and medical lab oratory operations were scattered in different parts of the building.

“It was pretty dismal,” said Col. Coy Barfield about the Fairchild Air Force Base hospital.

But dismal disappeared with an $11.2 million, 20-month remodeling completed this week. The shined-up building was shown off during an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.

The remodeling project gave the hospital three stories of spiffy-looking hallways and rooms. It also reorganized many departments to make the overall operation more efficient.

Instead of waiting four to six weeks for an appointment, patients should get in within a week, Barfield said.

The tan hospital gets 10,000-patient visits each month from Fairchild personnel, their families and retirees, Barfield said.

The work brought the hospital a new physical therapy clinic, an expanded radiology department and a pharmacy, which previously was elsewhere on the base.

One of the biggest transformations turned the old dining room and kitchen into a squeaky-clean medical laboratory. The kitchen’s walk-in refrigerators are the only thing that hint at this place’s former purpose. They now store chemicals, Barfield said.

While most visitors will notice the aesthetic changes, 75 percent of the remodeling is hidden. Workers added new wiring, fire detection and sprinkler systems - some of which hasn’t been changed since the building was built nearly 40 years ago, Barfield said.

A new emergency generator was installed as was air conditioning.

Work on the hospital began in October 1995. It was completed five months ahead of schedule.

Though commonly called a hospital, the facility does not keep any patients overnight. Surgery requiring an overnight stay is done at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, by military doctors.

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