West Georgia Medical Center has been showing off its new $70 million South Tower in advance of grand-opening ceremonies a week from now.

Employees toured the 130,000-square-foot building Monday, and there was a preview party Thursday night for high-end donors, city and county elected officials, and hospital leaders.

Physicians will go on a tour Monday, employees will have a picnic Wednesday and a first responders appreciation barbecue will be Thursday for all fire, ambulance and law-enforcement personnel in Troup County.

Scheduled to speak at the grand opening at 11 a.m. May 14 are Troup County Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland and Georgia Chamber of Commerce President George Israel, among others. Tours will follow from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Site work began in 2007 after two years of strategic planning, property acquisition and the regulatory process. It’s the first phase of a 15- to 20-year plan to improve facilities and services, including a possible North Tower.

“We’re excited that all the planning and hard work that went into this vision of the South Tower has finally come to fruition,” said Earl Cox, administrative director of facilities. “We’re really looking forward to serving patients in this brand new state-of-the art facility.”

McCarthy Construction Co. is putting the finishing touches on the building, which won’t actually open for business until June 1.

“We’ll be doing little things right up until the end, such as equipment installation and training people on the new equipment and the systems in the building,” Cox said.

The building has service corridors and elevators that will keep patients out of sight from the public, and employees have to learn all those routes.

The ground floor includes a new main entrance that will be accessible from Medical Drive, a two-story lobby, a heart clinic, gift shop, coffee and sandwich shop, and registration.

The first floor will have an emergency department more than double the current size, and the number of exam rooms will increase from 12 to 32. It will have several private family waiting rooms with flat-screen TVs and a children’s play room. The current emergency department was designed for 25,000 visits per year, but it now gets about 60,000.

The intensive-care unit on the second floor will have 24 beds, compared to the current 13. It will probably be the last department to move into the new building, Cox said.

“It will be done at the lowest census time,” he said. “Patients will have to be taken in their hospital beds with all the life-support systems.”

Labor and delivery, and a newborn nursery will occupy the third floor, and mechanical equipment will be on the top floor.

Cox said 26,000 square feet in the hospital will be vacated because of the South Tower and “we’re making plans to renovate and upgrade some of our existing services to make them more modern and user-friendly.”

“We’ll be completely renovating patient rooms to make them nicer for patients and make it where staff can give better care,” he said.

On June 7, an estimated four-month project will begin to raze the adjacent Heart Clinic building, creating 60 new parking places. Another 60 new parking places already are available at the South Tower’s front entrance.

More than 1,000 parking places are on campus, including 779 for visitors and staff, 36 for the handicapped and the remainder for physicians, contractors and deliveries. A golf cart driver picks up an average of 3,500 visitors per month from distant parking lots.

After the Heart Clinic demolition, it will take another four months to expand the South Tower lobby into some of the Heart Clinic space.

Medical-related paintings by renowned LaGrange artist Lamar Dodd already have been transferred from the Heart Clinic to the South Tower.

“We’ve got them in secure lock-up cases,” Cox said. “I was afraid someone might grab or damage one.”

Joel Martin can be reached at jmartin@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 235.