New labor, delivery rooms part of $13.5M Lufkin hospital expansion

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - The Woodland Heights Medical Center in Lufkin revealed newly added rooms to their labor and delivery department Friday.

This as part of their $13.5 million construction expansion project.

The expansion project started in July 2023 to increase the space within the labor and delivery unit.

CEO Jose Echavarria said the department had seven rooms but needed more for moms giving birth, so they added two extra rooms making it a total of nine.

“While also doing that, we decided to renovate our current space to make sure that every single mom has the same great experience,” said Echavarria.

With 30 years at Woodland Heights Medical center, physician and OBGYN Jerry Johnson said they want moms to feel more comfortable during childbirth, which wasn’t always the case 30 years ago.

“We had five delivery rooms. We did not have a neonatal ICU. We did not have regular epidurals. I mean they occasionally will be able to help us out and give our patients labor epidurals. So today, now we have a neonatal ICU capable of taking babies 9 to 28 weeks,” said Johnson.

Johnson highlights other improvements in the labor and delivery unit.

“The lighting is a lot better. I think patient flow will be a lot easier and bringing nursery in and having a place for family to stand where we’re not all tripping over each other,” said Johnson.

Director of Women’s services, Lacey Wall said they’re looking to add more new technologies.

“We’ll have wireless monitors, so moms are going to have a lot more freedom to move around the rooms, move around the halls if that’s what they want,” said Wall.

Security measures are also being implemented.

“We are ramping up our security for our moms and babies. The whole unit will be officially locked completely,” said Wall.

The labor and delivery unit were the first of two projects completed as part of the expansion with the emergency room being the second.

The emergency room portion of the project is expected to be finished by September.