The final chapter of COVID restrictions closed at ECU North Tuesday as the doors to the main entrance opened.

“ECU Health North Hospital has been in this community for a long time,” said President Todd Hickey at an event celebrating the reopening. “We’re opening the front door as an event and why that is significant is that healthcare’s hard.”

He said, “Healthcare in the Roanoke Valley has been very difficult. You think about all of your friends and family that have needed healthcare over these past several years and where they’ve had to go to receive that care.”

Now, he said, “We’re here today to tell you that there is one place to go to receive the highest quality care that a patient can have and that’s at ECU Health North.”

During COVID, the hospital had to close the front doors due to restrictions in an effort to minimize the risk of exposure to patients. “We had to close this and have a separate entrance to manage them. Then over time it became the new norm — but no more. Today’s event is to tell you that we are open. We are ready to take care of the patients of this community.”

That goes for all medical fields represented at the facility, he said. “And when you think about how we do that — heart and vascular care, cancer care, stroke care, emergency care — we provide it at the highest possible levels with the best possible outcomes.”

He extended an invitation to community members and employees who left because of COVID and other reasons “to come home. This is noy my hospital. This is our community’s hospital. This is your hospital and we take pride in that.”

Hickey said, “It’s the care that we represent in the people that we are that makes a difference in how we care for our patients.”

In reopening the main doors, he said, “We have refreshed and revamped the front rooms of this hospital. This area is shiny right now. We have new furniture, the flooring is all redone.”

The gift shop is open for business, he said, “And it has some great things for our patients and visitors to consider.”

In ending his talk before a ribbon-cutting staged by the Roanoke Valley Chamber of Commerce, Hickey told the audience, “We look forward to being — again — your healthcare system and recognizing what opening this front door is. This is our main entrance and we want everyone to know this is where you come when you need the healthcare that you need.”

Ginny Lewis, president and CEO of the chamber said, “We’re just really excited for all the expansion and the addition of new doctors that are coming to our area.”

She said, “It just makes it so much easier that we don’t have to travel to get the quality healthcare we can get right here in the Roanoke Valley. We wanted to extend a great welcome and just thank the hospital for their investment and what they’re doing here in the Roanoke Valley.”