MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- Vice Adm. Matthew Nathan, the surgeon general of the Navy visited Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune May 22 to tour the facilities under construction and visit with the staff.
Nathan stated he arranged the visit in order to see the immense progress of the facility expansion, to congratulate the staff on their hard work and to award the Executive Officer of Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, Navy Capt. Anne Swap, with a end-of-tour award.
“I was down here a little over a year ago and it’s amazing to watch the work that’s going on,” said Nathan. “I think the community is going to be very appreciative of the way the expansion is going to facilitate their primary care, emergency care and their specialty care.”
Nathan added sometimes people work in a somewhat remote location such as Camp Lejeune and they wonder if the rest of the world knows of the hard work they do. He said he came to the facility to tell the staff the whole world is watching and he’s impressed with the care they provide.
Jamie Windham, Petty Officer 3rd Class and an emergency room corpsman for the hospital said, she was very grateful for the visit by the surgeon general.
“It’s nice to get some gratitude for what we do here,” said Windham. “We do a lot of work down here and it’s nice to be patted on the back.”
Windham, who is involved with a lot of one-on-one interaction with emergency room patients, added the facility upgrade is much needed.
“We are really excited to produce better patient care by having a better facility,” said Windham. “We have about three people to a computer right now so it gets crowded. Work production is definitely going to increase with the new space.”
Slated in late 2010, the more than $57 million dollar project will add over 100,000 square feet to the facility. A new outpatient clinic, emergency department and the capability for magnetic resonance imaging is included in the construction plan.
With morale boosted and nearing completion updated facilities, the staff of Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune thanked Vice Adm. Nathan for his visit with a tour of the new hospital wings.