Renovation work on the New Hanover Regional Medical Center patient tower is proceeding on schedule, hospital spokeswoman Carolyn Fisher said.

Patients are scheduled to move into the eighth floor on Nov. 1. Work on the seventh floor will be finished around Dec. 19, Fisher said.

Renovation work on the ninth and 10th floors was completed in late June.

“All is moving according to schedule,” Fisher said.

Renovation of the 10-story building is being done two floors at a time and is scheduled to be complete by December 2010.

Hospital officials have said the refurbished patient tower and other additions to the hospital campus, like the Surgical Pavilion and Betty H. Cameron Women’s and Children’s Hospital, which both opened in 2008, will allow New Hanover Regional to meet community needs for many years to come. The price tag for three projects exceeds $221 million.

The redone patient tower will have 364 private rooms and nine semi-private rooms.