Print edition: 
Wesley Medical Center is building a $4.5 million endoscopy unit that will allow it to increase the number of procedures it's doing and to add services not currently available in Wichita.
Construction began June 14 on the unit, which is on the second floor of Building 4.
The project contractor is Key Construction of Wichita.
It will have six procedure rooms and nine patient beds, for care before and after procedures.
The existing endoscopy unit is on the fifth floor of Building 2 and has three procedure rooms.
The new unit will allow Wesley to add endobronchial ultrasound, used to diagnose and stage tumors in the bronchial area, and endoscopic ultrasound, to diagnose and stage tumors in the esophagus, pancreas and colon. Neither service is offered in Wichita now, Wesley said.
Also being added is capsule endoscopy, in which physicians view the small intestine via a tiny camera that's in a capsule swallowed by patients.
Jason Whinham, administrative fellow at Wesley, said, "From a business standpoint, we always need to be looking at ways and areas to keep yourself competitive in the marketplace, and we identified endoscopy as one of those areas that would benefit from the new technology that's offered."
The project also will make the unit more convenient for patients and physicians, he said.
Wesley does about 4,000 endoscopy procedures a year now, spokesman Paul Petitte said, and hopes to increase that with the new unit, which is expected to open in December.
Whinham said the $4.5 million cost is split about 50-50 between equipment and construction.
The unit will be located in space that's been unused for the past several months, Whinham said. It formerly housed the ambulatory surgery unit, which was consolidated with the preoperative staging unit last fall.
The new unit will occupy about 10,000 square feet, Whinham said.
