Samaritan Medical Center patients soon will report to the hospital’s new centralized registration area for outpatient testing services.

As part of the hospital’s $61 million expansion and renovation project, the centralized registration area will have its own dedicated entrance just outside of the hospital’s parking garage. Hospital spokeswoman Krista A. Kittle said this area will ease patients’ navigation to needed services.

“Depending on what service, patients (previously) would have to go to various parts of the hospital,” she said. “It’s already a confusing place. In some cases they’d have to register in one place and go to another. As a hospital, we now direct patients to registration, someone comes to get the patient or they are routed to those services.”

The centralized registration area’s outside entrance is between the emergency room and the medical office building.

Relocation of all services will occur within the next week, with the exception of infusion, which will be relocated in January.

Beginning at 6 a.m. today, patients must report to the centralized registration area if they go to the hospital for the following services: X-ray, an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan, a CT (computed tomography) scan, mammography, ultrasound, nuclear medicine, other radiology test; the first visit only of physical, occupational or speech therapy; the first visit of cardiac/pulmonary rehabilitation, the sleep lab, hospital admissions and pulmonary function testing.

Beginning at 6 a.m. Monday, people should report to the centralized registration area if they go to the hospital for the following services: laboratory services, preadmission testing for surgery, pediatric cardiology clinic, echocardiogram, stress testing and electrocardiogram, or EKG.

Ms. Kittle said that patients who come to the hospital for surgery or same-day procedures should report directly to the Surgical Care Center within the hospital, by taking elevator A in the main lobby.

The centralized registration area is one of many components of the hospital’s renovations. A new, 3,100-square-foot neonatal intensive care unit opened recently, and the maternity entrance area is being worked on. Renovations also will take place in departments such as physical therapy, pastoral care and volunteer services, according to a news release issued Monday by Samaritan.

Renovations, totaling 71,500 square feet, should be completed by mid-2013.

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