| Building for the Future |
Providing the Comforts of Home
For the first time since 1979 Deborah is undertaking a major patient room upgrade, converting a 28-bed semi-private nursing unit into a 14-bed private room unit. These private suites are geared to the changing tastes and expectations of baby boomers, who want higher quality hospital accommodations. The new rooms will replace the hospital atmosphere with a hotel-like environment. In addition to a hospital bed, each room will feature a couch, a flat panel TV, a zero-barrier roll-in full shower, and a moving patient cabinet. Designed with green, beige and brown earth tones, with maple veneer furniture, the refined setting incorporates functionality, maintenance, and longevity. Although the rooms will provide more creature comforts for our patients, the needs of a modern hospital underlie all facets of renovation. Each room sports its own bedside stationary computer for nursing and medical staff, and the suites themselves will provide several key components critical to recovery and care. These include:
Patient Safety: Private rooms prevent medication mix-ups, disease transmission, and meal mix-ups, important if a patient is on a special diet. Patient Privacy: Private rooms allow freer communication between doctors, nurses, and other staff, as well as with family members discussing care, and clergy who can openly discuss spiritual matters in confidence. In addition, private rooms make it easier to follow HIPPA guidelines. Patient Satisfaction: Private rooms allow patients a more restful environment without roommate distractions. Additionally, the in-room couch offers a resting spot for relatives.Productivity: Private rooms, reduce the cost of care and the length of stay.
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An ambitious $10 million capital expansion plan underway this year will pave the way to the Deborah of the future. Designed as a multi-pronged renovation package, the plan includes a new EPS suite, a freshly designed and laid out private patient wing, and a greatly expanded technology equipment area. These upgrades will give the Deborah of tomorrow the capabilities to support the hospital as the region’s center in Electromechanical Therapy and Heart Failure treatment, as well as in tumor detection, while also offering the ultimate in patient accommodations.
When the construction work is completed, Deborah’s inner lay-out will be very different. 2 Lesser and the PICU together will be transformed into a new cutting edge EPS center with a well-equipped prep area, recovery area and three state-of-the-art labs, including one for the new Stereotaxsis equipment that the hospital is bringing on board. Well designed and laid-out, this renovation offers optimum comfort and privacy, as patients make their way through their procedure. All necessary support space has been carefully configured for the ease of Deborah’s medical staff.
Additionally the pediatric area on the third floor of the hospital is undergoing a dramatic renovation, as it is turned into private patient rooms, catering to the tastes and changing demands of baby-boomers, who have higher expectations about the quality of their accommodations during a hospital stay. It is the first patient room upgrade Deborah has undertaken since 1979.
Rounding out the capital project is a mobile building unit installed on the first floor of the Lesser building. Here will be found a PET/CT scanner for tumor detection and staging. All these construction changes address the long-range future of heart, lung, and vascular care, while also providing mechanical and electrical upgrades needed to retrofit a building built in the mid-20th century that has to support 21st century technology. This capital improvement project will ensure that Deborah is ready to capture the future market, and the patients, who will find that Deborah is the best and only place to go for the quality of care they demand.
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Bringing Technology to the Center
With the high price tag of today’s most sophisticated diagnostic equipment, Deborah has found a more affordable solution to make sure the hospital has access to this technology. A newly constructed addition near the hospital’s front entrance will be an eight-foot wide corridor leading to a large, customized rolling door. Here at night on a regular schedule, a trailer will pull up with a PET/CT scanner, seamlessly connect to the rolling door with an inflatable dry seal, and in the morning Deborah’s staff will be ready to see patients who have an appointment.
This portion of the construction is so tastefully done that patients will barely notice that the diagnostic equipment is not permanently housed at the hospital. After the patients receive their test, Deborah’s doctors will be able to read the results right on the spot through electronic data transmission, and also provide the patient with a disc if needed to bring back to a referring doctor.
This solution is an excellent way for Deborah to gain access to this valuable technology. And by not purchasing the equipment outright, Deborah is assured that its equipment will not be outdated as quickly. The PET/CT scanner has incalculable value in the diagnosis and follow-up of lung cancer and coronary artery disease detection. The images taken during the scan are amazingly powerful because the technology allows detection of changes in the body’s biochemical activity, even before actual anatomical changes can be seen. In essence, this means that malignant lung tumors can be detected long before they become inoperable. Also, in the evaluation of coronary artery disease blood flow to the heart muscle can be measured, as well as a determination if heart muscle is alive or scarred from previous heart attacks which aids in deciding whether angioplasty or coronary artery bypass will improve a patient’s coronary artery blood flow and heart function. This early detection tool will lead to more effective treatment plans, less invasive procedures, and better long-term outlooks for patients.
This diagnostic equipment is a great asset to the hospital, offering services that have not been previously available on site, and contributing to Deborah’s reputation as a regional center of excellence.
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Electrophysiology Services at Its Best
A key cornerstone of Deborah’s current renovation and expansion program is a state-of-the-art, newly designed, and efficiently laid-out Electrophysiology Department. This new 6,500 sq. ft. renovation will support Deborah’s Heart Failure Evaluation and Management Program. Here in Deborah’s Heart Failure program, specialty-trained electrophysiologists study and treat heart arrhythmias and heart failure. Congestive heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization in the United States, with five million Americans suffering from the disease, and 550,000 more patients diagnosed each year. With 250,000 victims dying annually, and many more suffering debilitating symptoms, heart failure patients are in need of comprehensive, specialized care to help maintain quality of life. Deborah’s comprehensive Heart Failure Evaluation and Management Program was designed to help patients manage this disease. A highly-trained team of healthcare providers have specialized in heart failure and all the current treatments, including prescription drug therapy, electromechanical device therapies, catheterization, and surgery.
The new EPS renovation project includes:
• Centralizing the various divisions of Deborah’s
current EPS program – admission, prep, recovery, treatment, and family waiting -- into one location.
• A new six-bed enhanced patient prep and recovery unit, with optimal design for patient privacy and safety, as well as aesthetics – with maple wood and earth-tones used throughout. Also included is a spacious family waiting room offering a relaxing spot for those waiting during procedures.
• New staff accommodations including a scrub area, locker room, and lounge.
• Three state-of-the-art treatment rooms:
- One specially-designed room to accommodate a brand-new piece of diagnostic equipment, a Stereotaxis magnetic-based steering catheter. This technology, used in conjunction with a sophisticated mapping system, will allow Deborah doctors to accurately test the electrical activity inside the heart, inch by inch, and when an irregularity is found, be able to cauterize it. This technique, known as ablation, offers patients a remarkable opportunity to stabilize a heart’s irregular electrical rhythms.
- Another lab offers dedicated space for biplane imaging equipment that provides sophisticated views of the heart, both horizontally and vertically, for more complex device placement.
- The third new lab offers new, efficient space for device (pacemaker and defibrillator) placement, as well as a variety of other treatments, including cryo (freezing) and laser treatments.
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