[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18100]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              EXPANSION OF THE VERDE VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I am pleased to relate some good news from my 
State of Arizona. It is good news for Arizonans who live in the Verde 
Valley, which lies between Phoenix and Flagstaff.
  The Verde Valley Medical Center, a 99-bed, full-service hospital, has 
recently completed a $35 million expansion project. The project, which 
took nearly 3 years to complete, increases the size of the facility and 
updates a portion of the existing space.
  The expansion and renovation will add new medical services and help 
the center serve patients more efficiently. For instance, the medical 
imaging department will be moved to a centralized location, and more 
beds will be added to the telemetry unit, which serves patients who 
need to be monitored, but do not require intensive care. The updated 
facility also includes improvements and additions to serve women and 
children. The perinatal unit will move to a new location with a C-
section operating room and a recovery room. The increase in the 
facility's size will also allow the creation of a pediatrics unit.
  This recent project is only the latest expansion in the history of 
the Verde Valley Medical Center. For the past 70 years, the center has 
adapted to meet the needs of the growing community.
  The origins of the Verde Valley Medical Center can be traced to 1939, 
when a small, outpatient facility brought xray equipment and an 
operating room to Cottonwood. At that time, the Marcus J. Lawrence 
Memorial Clinic, as the center was then known, served a small, rural 
population. In 1940, Yavapai County, which contains Cottonwood, was 
home to just over 26,000 Arizonans. Today, the county has a population 
of over 167,000.
  The Verde Valley Medical Center has grown just like the region. Just 
6 years after opening, the Marcus J. Lawrence Memorial Clinic added 
more beds and became a hospital. Two decades later, the hospital moved 
to its current location and opened a new 50-bed facility.
  Then, in 1995, the medical center began extending its services into 
neighboring communities with the opening of a facility in Sedona. 
Later, new facilities would open in Camp Verde and Oak Creek. In 1998, 
the hospital became known as it is today, as the Verde Valley Medical 
Center, and 8 years later, the expansion project that has just been 
completed would begin.
  With the opening of the expansion, Verde Valley Medical Center is 
ready to build on its record of serving the north-central Arizona 
community. During the 2008 fiscal year, the center served about 77,000 
patients. This recent expansion will help to ensure that the medical 
center continues to meet the health care needs of Arizonans, just as it 
has for the past 70 years.

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