2008 Woodie Awards
Budget vetoes leave project unfinished
School of Dental Medicine expansion lacks finishing touch
Matthew Schroyer
Issue date: 9/13/07 Section: News
When Governor Rod Blagojevich vetoed $463 million from the state budget, one of the items nixed was $100,000 destined for the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine.
Now, SDM and SIU officials are attempting to reclaim the money, in hopes of finishing an SDM expansion project that began three years ago.
"It's a necessary icing on the cake," SDM Dean Ann Boyle said.
Known as the Advanced Care Wing, the $3 million SDM expansion contains 24 operatories, each of which can accommodate one patient. The 6,300 square-foot expansion also includes a classroom and four laboratories focused on pediatric dentistry.
The expansion allowed for patients to be taken care of in a single building on the Alton campus, whereas before, doctors and patients had to travel between two separate buildings.
"Charts don't have to go back and forth, and people don't have to go back and forth," Boyle said.
The expansion also replaced an older building on campus and boosted the number of patients that could be seen at the same time. Yet, despite having its ribbon cutting ceremony in Sept. 2006, the Advanced Care Wing did not received one finishing touch - a dispensing and sterilization area.
"It expanded the need for dispensing and sterilization," Boyle said.
The SDM currently has a dispensing and sterilization area for the many tools and medical instruments SDM students require, but it was not designed to handle the extra workload the expansion brought. As a result, the Advanced Care Wing cannot handle as many patients as it was designed to.
"It's functional the way it is," Boyle said, "but this area was not designed to serve quite so many providers."
The SIU Board of Trustees approved the funding for the expanded dispensing and sterilization July 12, and the project was placed on the state budget as a one-time line item.
The line item was included in a 79-page veto message from the office of Governor Blagojevich Aug. 14, while SIUE received a $1.1 million funding boost. Blagojevich announced that he intended the cuts to fund more than 710,000 additional persons through state health-care programs.
Now, SDM and SIU officials are attempting to reclaim the money, in hopes of finishing an SDM expansion project that began three years ago.
"It's a necessary icing on the cake," SDM Dean Ann Boyle said.
Known as the Advanced Care Wing, the $3 million SDM expansion contains 24 operatories, each of which can accommodate one patient. The 6,300 square-foot expansion also includes a classroom and four laboratories focused on pediatric dentistry.
The expansion allowed for patients to be taken care of in a single building on the Alton campus, whereas before, doctors and patients had to travel between two separate buildings.
"Charts don't have to go back and forth, and people don't have to go back and forth," Boyle said.
The expansion also replaced an older building on campus and boosted the number of patients that could be seen at the same time. Yet, despite having its ribbon cutting ceremony in Sept. 2006, the Advanced Care Wing did not received one finishing touch - a dispensing and sterilization area.
"It expanded the need for dispensing and sterilization," Boyle said.
The SDM currently has a dispensing and sterilization area for the many tools and medical instruments SDM students require, but it was not designed to handle the extra workload the expansion brought. As a result, the Advanced Care Wing cannot handle as many patients as it was designed to.
"It's functional the way it is," Boyle said, "but this area was not designed to serve quite so many providers."
The SIU Board of Trustees approved the funding for the expanded dispensing and sterilization July 12, and the project was placed on the state budget as a one-time line item.
The line item was included in a 79-page veto message from the office of Governor Blagojevich Aug. 14, while SIUE received a $1.1 million funding boost. Blagojevich announced that he intended the cuts to fund more than 710,000 additional persons through state health-care programs.
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