Baptist Medical Center Beaches celebrated the completion of its new Wilson Farrell Surgery Pavilion Tuesday, June 12 with a ribbon-cutting and open house for those who played a key role in making the hospital’s surgery center renovations possible.
“We’re here to celebrate the new surgical pavilion — the Wilson Farrell Surgical Pavilion — but more importantly, we’re here to celebrate the Beaches community,” Baptist Beaches President Joe Mitrick said. “We take pride in serving the residents of the Beach, and this facility’s going to enable us to carry out our mission to make sure you have the resources here that you need to be cared for.”
Attended by local officials and hospital donors and staff, the VIP reception offered attendees the opportunity to explore the new facility and its various improvements on guided tours.
“I was the administrator of this hospital in 1988, when it had 82 beds and more or less than 200 team members, and there are few people (who) remember that, that are in the room,” said Hugh Greene, president and CEO of Baptist Health.
Joking that it “used to rain” in the hospital’s old operating rooms, Greene added, “There is no way for people who were not here to understand the transformation of this facility over the last 30 years.”
With 19 private patient rooms, 12 recovery rooms and seven “smart” operating rooms, the new surgery pavilion offers much in the way of advanced technology. One of the facility’s more noteworthy additions is its new da Vinci Surgical System, a robotic system that facilitates complex surgeries with a precise, yet minimally-invasive approach.
Made possible by what Greene described as the “single largest gift ever given to Baptist Beaches,” the new facility was named in honor of donor Pat Wilson, whose mother’s maiden name was Farrell, and her late husband, J. Tylee Wilson, who also played a philanthropic role in the growth and development of Baptist Beaches in life.
“I am here today to pay tribute to this remarkable man, who lived an incredible life,” Wilson said of her late husband. “I really regret he’s not here to dedicate this wonderful Wilson Farrell Pavilion. … It represents his vision of providing future generations with this state-of-the-art facility close to everybody’s home in our community hospital. We’re fortunate to be able to give this great gift to Baptist Beaches, but it was the right thing for us to do.”