ONANCOCK, Va.– Riverside’s new hospital on the Eastern Shore is light, bright and airy thanks to expansive windows that let in natural light. Even though the new hospital is nearly 20% larger in square footage than the Nassawadox building, the banks of windows mean that signage, art and donor recognition all compete for limited wall space.
In response to this challenge, Riverside planned an innovative and elegant digital donor display to recognize community members who over the years have generously supported health care on the Shore. The display is now featured in the lobby between the entry doors and the Shore Café.
Donors who were honored or memorialized on plaques on doors and in hallways in the Nassawadox hospital are now featured on the digital display.
“The digital display gives us the opportunity in the future to expand on the story of these visionary individuals,” said John Peterman, Vice President and Administration at Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital. “We cherish the rich history that brought us from the 1910’s to today. Three successive hospital buildings and a large integrated health network have been possible because our community supports us. Not a day goes by that we don’t remember that.”
Because the plaques are now documented digitally, the individual plaques themselves are available to be returned to the donors or to the family members of the persons honored and memorialized on the plaques.
Community members can come to Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital at 20480 Market Street, Onancock VA 23417 on September 6th from 1-5pm, and September 7th from 9am-5pm to view the new display and pick up any plaques belonging to their family. Visitors should enter through the main lobby, visit the information desk upon arrival and ask for Pam Parker. Parker can be reached at 757-302-2150.
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It sounds to me as like health-care history is being moth balled, subject only to display on a lobby TV. Recognizing what it was doing in dismantling a more than 80-year medical community in Nassawadox, Riverside should have planned the memorial space into its design. It should not have been an after thought. To request family members to pick up plaques is saying, come and take your piece of history home with you; we’ll document it, but in a less than museum way of display. Thumbs down to RS on this one.