Floyd Medical Center’s governing bodies approved the expenditure of $776,930 Monday night for the renovation and expansion of the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital.

Shelia Bennett, the hospital’s vice president of nursing, explained that $467,000 will be used for construction work, $245,000 is earmarked for the acquisition of equipment and the remainder will go for architect fees and contingencies.

Work on the project, for which a certificate of need was issued in September 2011, is already under way and should be complete early in 2013.

The NICU average daily census is now right at 12, however Bennett said it is not unusual to go as high as 20. Floyd has also brought on a couple of new neonatalogists. Floyd is designated as a Level Three NICU center, as is Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton.

Kim Scoggins, the administrator for Polk Medical Center, said architects who are drawing plans for a new hospital in Polk County met with department heads at the hospital in Cedartown recently to assist with the development of plans for the new facility, which will be built on property off U.S. 278 between Cedartown and Rockmart.

FMC Chief Fiscal Officer Rick Sheerin said the average daily census at Polk was up to 5.9 in October, the highest level since Floyd assumed control of operations at the medical center in April.

Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements as the percentage of revenue at the hospital stands at 52.7 percent through October, slightly higher than the 51 percent which Floyd had projected.