MUSC hosts guests, visitors during
Ashley River Tower dedication
A view of the
dedication ceremony from atop one of the wings of Ashley River Tower.
Guests were treated to a video and had the opportunity to tour ART
during the Oct. 12 event. For information visit http://www.muschealth.com/ashleyrivertower.A ceremony held Oct. 12 officially dedicated Ashley River Tower (ART) as the newest addition to MUSC, which marks the beginning of a multi-phase expansion project focused on providing excellence in patient care for all South Carolinians. MUSC Board of Trustees (BOT), MUSC administration, state and local officials, community leaders, and friends gathered at ART’s arrival garden to celebrate the new building deemed a national engineering masterpiece that will add 156 patient beds to MUSC’s medical center. Borne from the collaborative efforts by many people in and outside of the MUSC family, ART signifies the finest and newest in medical facilities built for flexibility and growth with advancing therapies and patient services.
Physician liaison
Carrie Allen, right, hands an ART dedication scroll to a visitor. The scroll notes the square footage, construction manager, architects
and program consultants of the project. With Allen is physician liaison.
On the third floor
visitors listen to Dr. Philip Costello, Department of Radiology chair, as he points
to a monitor displaying a 3-D coronary artery CT angiogram that is used by cardiologists
in placement of a coronary artery stent.
BOT Chairman Charles B. Thomas, M.D., welcomed and thanked those in the community and MUSC for their diligence. MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., gave audience members an overview of MUSC’s new era of excellence. Keynote speaker and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson expressed his excitement about the new facility and held MUSC as a role model for universities to follow to move the health care system toward a more productive and equitable future. A three-term Wisconsin governor and longtime state legislator, Thompson earned national attention for his leadership in welfare reform and expanded health care access for low income people. Due to his distinguished career, he was presented with a Doctor of Humane Letters from MUSC. In conclusion, Stuart Smith, medical center vice president of clinical operations, unveiled a stone monument to be placed within the building to mark the dedication.
MUSC President Dr.
Ray Greenberg unveils the Ashley River Tower stone marker with the help
of (from left) Dr. Charles Thomas, MUSC board chairman, Eugene Fallon,
an MUSC patient; and Tommy Thompson,
keynote speaker. Guests then enjoyed a reception in the conservatory of the new building and took guided tours of the diagnostic and treatment areas. The first of its kind on many levels in the Southeast, ART will add 641,000 square feet of clinical space designed to house the latest health care technology while providing comfort and quality care for MUSC patients and families.
Visitors are
welcomed by tour volunteers as they enter the conservatory of ART. The
first patient will be admitted in January.Friday, Oct. 26, 2007
Catalyst Online is published weekly,
updated
as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public
Relations
for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of
South
Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at
792-4107
or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to
Catalyst
Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to
catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island
Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.