Williamsport — Although gray skies and a cold drizzle served as the backdrop for Williamsport Regional Medical Center’s ground-breaking ceremony for a $140 million patient tower, the overall prognosis for the hospital is anything but cloudy.

Last Wednesday’s ceremony was a high-water mark in the hospital’s $250 million, multi-year Project 2012 building and renovation process.

Several hundred people from the community, civic leaders, members of the media and hospital staff gathered together at the corner of Walnut and Louisa streets, where the new addition will be constructed in stages so as not to interrupt services at the hospital.

When completed in early 2012, the new tower, which will feature many green technology aspects, will contain a wide array of new and expanded services.

A greatly expanded and modern emergency room will occupy the ground floor, while upper floors will include an updated surgical floor, imaging departments and extensive intensive and critical care units.

A high-tech education and innovation center, along with an orthopedic and spinal services, will be housed in the new addition, which will also accommodate 84 new, single-patient rooms.

Lycoming County Commissioner Rebecca Burke said the project will turn the hospital into a “health and healing destination” for central Pennsylvania.

In addition to giving the city of Williamsport a modern medical complex with quality care and compassion, the city is also gaining financially in many ways.

According to Steven P. Johnson, hospital president and CEO, the patient tower alone will generate about $500,000 in building permits while creating 230 new health system jobs, with an estimated 270 additional “ripple effect” support jobs.

Project 2012 has already created more than 400 temporary construction jobs with the new patient tower and numerous other expansion and renovations projects throughout the system’s three hospitals in Lycoming County.

A few of the most challenging projects so far have included the construction of a dual, fuel Energy Service Center and the acquisition of 105 residential properties that bordered the south side of the hospital, allowing for new construction, parking and a new grand entrance to the hospital.

It was also announced during the groundbreaking ceremony that the 131-year-old institution, formerly named the Williamsport Hospital & Medical Center, will now become the Williamsport Regional Medical Center to represent the hospital’s expanded services to the region.