Northwest Medical Center (NMC) last week broke ground for a $46 million expansion that will deliver a new surgical wing and add four minimally invasive operating room (OR) suites to the existing dozen ORs in the hospital.

Northwest Medical Center continues to fulfill its promise to see emergency room patients in 30 minutes or less since last October, and plans to continue the program through 2012 and the foreseeable future.

Paul Kappelman, chief executive officer of Northwest Medical Center, has resigned his position, the hospital said in a Tuesday afternoon announcement.

Northwest Medical Center’s new chief executive officer is former Tucson resident Kevin Stockton. Stockton returned to his hometown to take over the helm of the 300-bed hospital on March 14. He is responsible for the operations and strategic management of the facility and off-campus locations, including urgent care offices and ambulatory surgery centers.

Jan Offret, chief nursing officer at Northwest Medical Center, has been honored with an Outstanding Achievement Award from Community Health Systems, one of the nation's leading systems of general acute-care hospitals.

We all know that regular exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Exercise makes you look and feel good – promoting greater muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, weight control, and cardiovascular fitness.

Since 1997, the town of Oro Valley has required developers to contribute 1 percent of their construction costs to public art. As a result of this extraordinary directive, by this time next year, the new Northwest Medical Center Oro Valley may house the largest collection of contemporary regional art in the area.

The Best of the Northwest received nearly 400 votes

The inpatient rehabilitation facility at Northwest Medical Center Oro Valley recently was ranked among the top 10 percent of such facilities in the nation, according to the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation.

Northwest Medical Center Oro Valley has changed its name to Oro Valley Hospital.

Amber Lights Retirement Community

Trying to meet the needs of her own children led Kim Lauger to study neurodevelopmental difficulties, the kind associated with autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other complex syndromes and problems.

Best Mom and pop business

Dick Eggerding has said it 100 times and will keep saying it until there is no breath left to push out the words: The arts are the soul of a community. Without them, the 70-year-old Eggerding argues, communities have no life. They are as hollow and empty as a decaying saguaro.

Two Northwest-area physicians, two nurses and the physician brother of one of them recently traveled to Milot, Haiti, volunteering their medical skills to help earthquake victims.

Tucson Orthopaedic Institute, P.C., has a new location in the Northwest.

Dr. Michael Gooden, a board-certified vascular specialist with experience in diagnosing and treating vascular disease, has joined Northwest Allied Physicians.

Alex Westerband, M.D., FACS, is a board-certified vascular surgeon who has joined Northwest Allied Physicians.

Northwest Allied Physicians, affiliated with Oro Valley Hospital, specialize in family medicine, gynecology, gynecologic surgery, infectious disease, internal medicine, vascular, and hospital-based care.

The Northwest Fire District responded to a three-vehicle accident on Tangerine road near Camino De Oeste at 10:55 a.m.

Sheryl Kocher - Receptionist