The Jefferson Medical Center hosted the monthly Chamber of Commerce meeting in Jefferson County and took time to share multiple accomplishments of the center as well as expound on future plans.

Dr. Christina DeRose, president and chief operating officer, told those gathered Thursday that the goal of the center is to provide good care.

“We want visitors to find a location that is visually pleasing, to be treated with respect and to receive good clinical care,” she said. “I would not go somewhere that good clinical care was not expected.”

While DeRosa said that Jefferson Hospital has received bad reviews in the past, she has worked to try to eliminate that.

“We’ve put in a lot of time and effort outliving the reputation,” she said.

In making strides to do just that, she explained that the hospital has seen significant renovation and upgrades over the past several years.

The Emergency Department was renovated in 2010, increasing its size from four beds to eight. New equipment was added in the department as well as in other departments throughout the building.

The surgical department received a $1 million renovation, DeRosa said. The chapel was redesigned and is a centerpoint for the hospital.

“There is not a department that hasn’t had something done to it,” DeRosa said.

Denise Carter, a registered nurse who manages the nurses in the emergency department, shared that more focus is going toward senior care.

“We want to create a safe, friendly atmosphere for them with dimmed lights, large print signs and clocks, more handrails in the hallways and quieter treatment areas with no blinking lights or beeping machinery,” she said. Renovations to what will be dubbed a senior emergency department are expected within the next year.

DeRosa said that additions to the medical staff also offer significant improvement to the center’s service. The addition of a physician anesthesiologist has helped secure other medical personnel who would not have chosen to relocate to Jefferson prior to that addition.

While all of these steps have been taken to improve care at the hospital located in Ranson, DeRosa said that the funds spent have been done cost-effectively, keeping in mind that a new hospital will be built in the future.

The hospital purchased 50 acres of land in Charles Town, located off Route 9, she explained. A future building project will happen when plans are completed and it is deemed feasible to move forward.

“It will be a fully integrated medical center campus,” DeRosa said, including medical officers, the hospital and a training center.

Until the time that the hospital is built and relocated, the current facility will continue to provide up-to-date service and equipment to patients, DeRosa said.