BLOOMINGTON - Safety, efficiency and comfort are goals of two behind-the-scenes projects totaling $6 million at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center.

The first project - costing nearly $1.9 million - is relocating the sterile processing area, where surgical instruments are sterilized, from the basement of the 1968 building to newer, larger space in the lower level of the surgery suite.

Having sterile processing directly under surgery rooms will be more efficient for staff and safer for everyone because non-sterilized instruments will be taken directly downstairs using a special elevator, said Jan Weaver, St. Joseph clinical manager of surgical services.

The new sterile processing area will include three state-of-the-art sterilizers that are safer for the environment and about double the capacity of existing sterilizers. New sterilizers will include tracking equipment to record which instrument was used on each patient, Weaver said.

The equipment replaces two traditional sterilizers that are about 30 years old and have required a lot of maintenance over the years, said Larry Wills, vice president of hospital operations.

Work is nearly done but the equipment must be approved by the Illinois Department of Public Health. Weaver anticipates the new area will be in use within six weeks.

The second project - at $4.1 million - is a 4,600-square-foot addition to the hospital's power plant to accommodate two new energy-efficient chillers to air condition the hospital.

Two old chillers have served the hospital through several expansions but they are at capacity and it's time to replace them with larger units, Wills said. Work on the project should be complete next week, he said.