Construction is now underway on the UHS Wilson Medical Center project in Johnson City to bring a massive new building featuring a new emergency and trauma center three times larger than the current department and a new helipad on the roof. 

Following a pandemic that saw record-setting overcrowding at hospitals, UHS officials say the multi-million dollar project will help upgrade and modernize the campus that sits in the heart of Johnson City.

“The last addition to the Wilson Medical Center was over 30 years ago. So modernization and access for our patients was high on the priority list of this project. We wanted individuals to be able to access care as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” said Michelle Karedes, UHS' senior director of Strategic Facility Planning.

The new tower also will include 120 private rooms, giving patients the space they need, Karedes said as the hospital learned pandemic-related lessons of keeping patients separated.

For hospitals across the state, staffing remains a major issue.

UHS also aims to attract more health care providers from across the Northeast, and encourage nursing students at Binghamton University to stay.

“Certainly having a new brand new modernized facility would be a significant recruitment tool that we would try to use to encourage them to stay here in the Southern Tier,” said Karedes.

The changes to the campus will bring more departments closer together. The MRI services will soon be relocated from across the street to the new building. 

“Being able to have that equipment in the hospital with the technicians and expertise will also save time on diagnoses of patients and get them the services that they need,” said Karedes.