The new ER and patient tower at Tift Regional Medical Center is officially open.  

On Wednesday, December 1, the new tower at Tift Regional Medical Center (TRMC) officially opened as patients from the Emergency Department, the Orthopedics Unit, and the Intensive Care Unit moved over into the new facility. 

“This new patient tower has been a vision for our facility for years, with construction starting back in the summer of 2019,” said Alex Le, Chief Operating Officer for Tift Regional Medical Center. “We are grateful that we have been able to expand and grow as a system, especially during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are excited to see our longtime dream realized. This would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff, financing through the USDA Rural Development Program, or the work done by Perkins & Will, Adams Management Services Corporation, JE Dunn, and Jones Construction. Thank you to each and every person who helped make this dream a reality.”

The patient tower is a four story building expansion onto the existing structure of TRMC and will add an additional 263,000 square feet to the facility. Part of the project also includes renovations to the current facility to allow for a seamless connection to the new building, dramatically changing the main entrance of the hospital.

TRMC will retain its 181-bed license with the new tower, but it will allow all semi-private rooms to be converted to private throughout the facility. It will also allow for more observation rooms in the Emergency Department. 

“We know that having all private rooms for our patients will greatly improve our patients’ experience and overall satisfaction,” said Le. “We are incredibly excited to be able to offer only private patient rooms in the future and have a larger ER capacity to serve patients as well.”  

As part of the construction project, TRMC worked with the City of Tifton and Tift County to close a part of 18^thstreet and to reroute a portion of John Orr Drive. This allowed for the construction of the new tower as well as new parking areas for employees, patients, and visitors. 

Patients and visitors will park in Parking Lot 2 (located on the corner of 20^th Street and Old Ocilla Road) for Day Surgery and Pre-Surgery Testing, Endoscopy, and the Heart & Vascular Center. Patients and visitors coming in for any outpatient testing (lab work, x-rays, mammograms, etc.), inpatient visitation, and the Emergency Department will park in either Parking Lot 4 or 5 (both located directly in front of the new tower and separated by John Orr Drive). 

For more information about the new tower, visit mysouthwell.com.