Transcription:

Alyne Ellis (Host):  Welcome to TVH Health Chat with Temecula Valley Hospital. I'm Alyne Ellis. If you've driven by the hospital lately, you've probably noticed it's getting a facelift. Joining us today to tell us what's happening now and all the details is Temecula Valley Hospital's Chief Operating Officer Dave Lawson. Welcome Dave.

Dave Lawson, COO (Guest): Thank you. Happy to be here.

Host: So, driving by, one might wonder if the hospital is open and taking care of patients.

Dave: Absolutely. We are definitely open to the public. We're taking care of patients. Pardon the dust, and pardon the interruption.

Host: So, why is the building under construction?

Dave: So, good question. There were issues with the original construction and the exterior of the surface of the building that needed to be corrected. We, we've been looking at this, this was a long standing project and we needed to make sure that we were restoring the building appropriately and making sure the exterior was being taken care of appropriately.

Host: So, what is being installed at the moment?

Dave: Well, the first part of the process was to install scaffolding on all five stories, which allows for the construction team to complete their work. Currently, this is being done on the east side of the building and the scaffolding will now be coming off the west side of the building soon as the work is being completed.

Host: So, you're resurfacing the building? Is that what's happening?

Dave: We are. We're resurfacing the building. It's a simple little project that we're working on, although it appears very, very big. It's a simple project we're going through the entire building and just resurfacing it to make sure that we have the building completely covered and protected.

Host: And that's all on the outside that we're talking about?

Dave: That's completely on the exterior of the building. Nothing's being done on the interior of the building. It's 100% on the exterior, correct.

Host: So, what's the purpose of that big black tarp that you have surrounding the outside exterior?

Dave: We get a lot of questions about that black tarp. It's a little doom and gloom it looks like from the outside, but the black tarp is in place to protect the construction team from wind and sun while they're standing on the scaffolding. It's also to help prevent any sort of debris from falling on any staff or patients, or just falling in general onto the pavement and the sidewalks.

Host: And when do you expect to be able to take that down and have a gleaming new surface up there?

Dave: We're expecting to be able to have this all fully completed by August. We're actually a little bit ahead of schedule as well. So, we're hopeful to be able to announce an earlier date, but we're hoping that it'll all go on, on track at least, and be done by August.

Host: And just out of plain old curiosity, is it going to be the same color as before you started all this?

Dave: Absolutely. It'll be the same color. And as you can see, we actually took down the tarps on the, west side of the building already. And so the tarps are revealing that it's going to be the exact same color as before. The building will look exactly the same as it did from the get-go.

Host: So, I think when people drive by, they probably have an impression, for example, that you might be building a new tower or you're washing the windows, or you're improving the rain drainage. And then of course, possibly demolishing the building or maybe even protecting the patients from COVID with a big tarp. I mean, have you gotten rumors like that, people think these things?

Dave: Absolutely. We hear these comments all the time from the community. Every time I'm out in meetings in the public, we get these questions a lot. We also see it a lot on social media. See a lot of people talking about this being due to COVID. We see a lot of it, people talking about well is the building going to be demolished, what's happening with this. All of these are false rumors. All of them are false rumors on social media. The answer is each of these is absolutely no. We are just completely resurfacing the building. That has nothing to do with anything related to COVID. IT has nothing to do with washing the windows or also constructing a new tower.

I will say, however, we are working on a master facility plan for our entire campus here. So, we hope to be able to make announcements in the coming months on some future projects on growth as we look to expand the building.

Host: Can you give us a little tidbit of a hint of what that might be?

Dave: I'll just say more to come. One big project was approved. But we're working with the city to be able to work on that master facility project now.

Host: Well, very good luck. And I'm sure driving by now or going into building for care, it'll be a nice change when the building's done, but at the moment, everything's great.

Dave: Thank you. Everything looks great. Now we're happy with our team. Couldn't say enough about our staff. Couldn't say enough about our nurses. Our nurses are fantastic here. Our frontline staff are amazing. All the support. Our physicians are doing an excellent job, and I'll say the community has really rallied around us. And just want to say a big thanks to anybody in the community, listening to this, they have done an amazing job on outreach. They've given out thousands and thousands of dollars, I'm assuming of blankets and other items and taking care of our employees and our staff. The team here has just been amazing at this troubled time and really have been rallying together. And hopefully we see some progress out there and we see some the COVID numbers are declining rapidly. And so we are very, very hopeful and positive about our future here in the Temecula area.

Host: Well, thank you very much for joining us and for the work you're doing. It's really so important right now. And thank you.

Dave: Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for allowing me to do this today.

Host: Dave Lawson is the Chief Operating Officer at Temecula Valley Hospital. You're listening to TVH Health Chat with Temecula Valley Hospital. For further details on construction updates, please visit Temecula Valley Hospital on Facebook. I'm Alyne Ellis. Thanks for listening.