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Guam - You've seen the structure up in Dededo and today, officials from the Guam Regional Medical City offered a glimpse inside the new facility that is set to open later this year.  


Located near the corner of Route 1 and Route 3 in Dededo, it's hard to miss the construction site of the new Guam Regional Medical City. Today, ahead of its opening later this year, GRMC officials offered a look inside the over $215 million project. Chief operating officer Gloria Long led today's tour, and said, "The biggest difference is we're new; the other difference is we have specialty equipment for specialized doctors."


The first floor is the most completed part of the six-story building. With electricity already running and the cool breeze of the air conditioner filling the halls, it's hard not to imagine what the first floor alone will offer. "So what's on the first floor are the outpatient service area, emergency room, urgent care, imaging, radiation/x-ray, radiation therapy, chemo, and ENT services, admissions and accounting," Long added.


The second floor is set to host all the intensive care units and operating rooms. The third floor will have the executive administrative offices, the chapel, laboratory and rehab, the fourth and fifth floor will be 100 percent patient rooms. "So on the fourth floor, we have Labor & Delivery on one side and we have pediatrics on one side on the fifth floor we have Surgical on one side and Medical & Telemetry, so telemetry is monitoring unit, but the rooms can be with or without monitors," she added.


While the facility is not completed, it does boast some new equipment that is already in the testing and review phase. From the new mammogram machine to this new linear accelerator worth $4.3 million that provides radiation therapy. Long said, "And this machine can do several capabilities, it offers a service that is not available here on Guam, we do have a linear accelerator, but this linear accelerator is a step above the one we have already, and can actually do what's called IMRT services, which is a higher level of cancer treatment radiation services so this is one those equipment that will help facilitate services to people on Guam who need cancer care."


And just as GRMC prepares to complete its facility, it still hopes to provide care to the community in the meantime. "We're hoping that our specialists that are here can start seeing patients starting next week, so we have contract agreements with Staywell, Takecare, Selectcare and Netcare. It's called GRMC Specialty Care Center," she said.


The specialty clinic will open at the former Social Security Office in Harmon next to Cost-U-Less. Long says out of its 54 hired doctors, 17 are on Guam already. The new timeline for GRMC's opening is set for early December.