Topping Out Ceremony

January 26, 2011

WELLINGTON, FL — A milestone in the construction of the new patient care tower at Wellington Regional Medical Center was celebrated on Thursday, January 26, 2012 as Administrators, employees, Auxiliary members, construction workers and engineers watched as 144-foot tall crane hoisted one of the final beams atop the new tower. In keeping with the Topping Out tradition, an evergreen tree and an American flag were perched on top of the beam which was painted white and decorated with colorful autographs of employees and construction crew.

A Topping Out ceremony signifies that the highest point of the structure has been achieved. The celebration recognizes the construction workers and design team behind the project which has come only 4 ½ months after the Groundbreaking event on September 14th.

Hospital CEO, Jerel Humphrey, acknowledged Wellington Regional Medical Center employees as key to the hospital's success. "This will be a beautiful, state-of-the-art building, but it is the skill of our medical professionals and their commitment to our patients that will make it great," he said.

Also addressing the crowd, was Mr. Alan B. Miller, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Universal Health Services, Inc., Wellington Regional's parent company, who thanked the construction firm, The Robins and Morton Group of Orlando, for keeping the construction project on target for completion in late 2012.

The 103,000 square foot expansion will consist of a three-story building providing 80 private patient rooms which will allow the much needed space to develop and expand services such as neurosurgery, cardiology and orthopedics with a vision of developing a medical oncology unit in the future. Each floor will offer an 8-bed ICU step-down unit providing support for existing medical-surgical and ICU services.

A barbecue lunch, raffle prizes and gifts were part of the festivities of the afternoon.