RANDOLPH, Vt.—Renovations will begin this month to create a new Women’s Health Center at Gifford with a grand opening slated for September. The center will house Gifford’s OB-GYN and Midwifery services and providers in an improved location directly adjacent to Gifford’s renowned Birthing Center.
“We are creating a centralized space to optimize our delivery of exceptional health care for women,” said Gifford President and CEO Dan Bennett. “The foundation of trust we have built with Vermont women starts with our Birthing Center. Because of that trust, women come back to Gifford for subsequent care and procedures, for themselves and their families. Establishing the Women’s Health Center is an opportunity to build upon that trust and further lead in patient care.”
The Women’s Health Center project will move Gifford’s OB-GYN and Midwifery clinic, currently located outside the main medical center building, to the south end of the medical center next to the Visitors Entrance and adjacent to the Birthing Center. Once housed within the medical center, OB-GYN team members and patients will be closer to other Gifford services and providers, easing patient access and improving upon continuity of care. The center will be 5,700 square feet – 1,240 square feet larger than the current OB-GYN and Midwifery space – and include a new designated Procedure Room, Ultrasound Room, Phlebotomy Room and Lab in addition to provider offices and midwife on-call space.
The Women’s Health Center also will include meeting space for nursing education as well as patient education and access to resources, like social services, to improve overall health and quality of life. For example, there will be designated space for private counseling with a Gifford social worker, to address issues like housing and food insecurity, and for special programs such as prenatal and parenting classes.
“We look forward to sharing our new Women’s Health Center with our patients,” said Dr. Elisabeth Nigrini, who leads the OB-GYN and Midwifery team at Gifford. “We aim to treat a pregnant mother and her family rather than a diagnosis. For our more vulnerable populations, creating this centralized space with access to education and social services within our center for well-woman care is especially important.”
Nigrini and her team care for adolescents and women who range in age from 13 to 99, helping them address a variety of issues and conditions, from period management to pregnancy to endometrial cancer. For more information about women’s health at Gifford, visit giffordhealthcare.org/service/obstetrics-gynecology.
For more information about development of the new Women’s Health Center, including ways to support the project, call Ashley Lincoln at 802-728-2380 or email .
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Gifford is a community hospital in Randolph, Vt., with family health centers in Berlin, Bethel, Chelsea, Randolph, Rochester, and White River Junction; and specialty services throughout central Vermont. A Federally Qualified Health Center and a Top 100 Critical Access Hospital in the country, Gifford is a full-service hospital with a 24-hour emergency department and inpatient unit; many surgical services; a day care; two adult day programs; and the 30-bed Menig Nursing Home, which was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best 39 nursing homes in the country in 2012. The Birthing Center, established in 1977, was the first in Vermont to offer an alternative to traditional hospital-based deliveries, and continues to be a leader in midwifery and family-centered care. The hospital’s mission is to improve individuals’ and community health by providing and assuring access to affordable, high-quality health care in Gifford’s service area.
