Hospital enjoys new bridge

They have a new way of walking at Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

This week a new, second-story bridge connecting different wings at the hospital opened, providing a fast route for employees, patients and visitors to navigate the campus.

“I think it’s great,” Glendale Adventist administrative assistant Fiora Murphy said. “It’s much shorter.”

Murphy admitted she got lost the first time she tried to take the new shortcuts — one an indoor bridge between the east tower and the west tower and the other an outdoor walkway from the main pavilion to the west tower.

Paul Trevino, security chief at the hospital, said before this week pedestrians routinely needed escorts to get from one part of the hospital to another.

“There was a lot of confusion,” he said.

An easier route is also on the way for drivers, who now have to use surface streets to get from parking areas near one part of the facility to another. A new driveway will make it possible to move around the hospital without going off campus, Glendale Adventist Chief Operating Officer Warren Tetz said.

From the new indoor walkway, users have a view of even more construction. Tetz said work is continuing on a wing of the hospital that will contain an in-patient radiology unit, an upgraded area for family members of those undergoing surgery and 60 new beds.

When completed, the new wing will bring the total number of beds at the hospital to 507, Tetz said.