TV Giveaway

Greetings from WellStar Paulding Hospital!  We hope you had a great Labor Day, and we are excited to give you an update as we move into the fall season.  For the last year, we have been slowly creating a “mock patient room” for the new replacement facility.   This room has been through much iteration, and it has evolved into what will be the exact inpatient room once the hospital opens in April 2014.  What once started as wooden planks and cardboard walls now has become a gorgeous replica of what we will see in the future WellStar Paulding Hospital.

Throughout the design of the mock room, WellStar Paulding Hospital team members were invited to tour the space and give their feedback.  Serving as subject matter experts, team members provided us with specific feedback, which prompted revision to the design to better meet the needs of our patients, physicians, staff, and families.  These changes will enhance our ability to provide the highest quality of care in a patient centered environment.

As a reward for taking time out of their busy schedules to visit the mock room and give us feedback, each team member was entered into a drawing to win one of two 40” flat screen televisions (exact replicas of what will go in the patient rooms).  Shared Governance teams from the third floor and ED each drew one name. David White from Facilities Engineering and Ken Cole from IT were the winners!

Thanks for your great feedback—your opinions are shaping the hospital we will see in April 2014!

Pebble Projects

This installment of the WellStar Paulding Hospital blog is all about Pebble—and I don’t mean rocks! 

The process of building a new hospital starts way before the first shovel of dirt is turned.   Years and years go into brainstorming, visioning and designing the facility. The typical length of a new hospital project can last anywhere between three and 20 years! Because of the length of time involved, few people are involved for the entire length of the project. Most people also only go through the design and building process once in their life.  By the time they are experts at planning and constructing a hospital, they never do it again!  All that useful knowledge is never used again.

The Center for Healthcare Design has created the Pebble Project to tap into that hidden knowledge from hospital around the world and share it with hospitals currently in the building process. The project was launched in 2000, and the purpose is to showcase researched examples of healthcare facilities whose design has contributed to improved patient and staff outcomes, as well as operating efficiency. For example, Pebble project research shows that natural light decreases the length of stay for patients. Therefore, new hospitals should maximize the number of windows in patient rooms and public areas. In addition, research also has proven that errors are reduced if all patient rooms are standardized, or look exactly the same. Standardization allows the caregiver to always know where everything is, which eliminates time wasted searching for materials. Another example is research shows that caregivers who work long shifts are at a higher risk of workplace fatigue. To combat this fatigue, Pebble hospitals are including rest rooms for staff that allows them a private place to unwind and refocus.

WellStar Paulding Hospital has been a Pebble Project partner for four years. Our new replacement facility is being designed and built using the above mentioned elements and other design best practices from  hospitals worldwide. The most successful design features are being installed to ensure safety and efficiency. Also, natural light and art are being included to enhance the healing environment. To add to Pebble community’s knowledge base, WellStar Paulding Hospital will conduct research studies of its own and report the findings for future hospitals in the Pebble community. It is truly a community based on sharing the best hospital designs in the world. We are very proud to be a Pebble Project partner.

For more information on the Pebble Project, please visit http://www.healthdesign.org/pebble.

Fast and Furious

We are officially less than two years away from the opening of the WellStar Paulding Hospital Replacement Facility, and progress on the site is fast and furious!  The new entrance from Highway 278 is almost complete, concrete is being poured and walls are being erected.  Everyone at the hospital and in the community is excited to finally see the new hospital being built.  But what will actually be on the site?

Glad you asked!  For starters, there is currently a four-story medical office building (the MOB) that holds many physician’s offices, a full service imaging center, outpatient lab, outpatient infusion and sleep lab.  This building will be cloned on the site, and the second medical office building will hold additional medical office spaces and other outpatient functions for the community.

These two buildings will be joined to the future new hospital by a seven-story glass atrium—quite a beautiful site to see!  The atrium will lead into the new hospital—the main focus of the new construction.

The new hospital will be seven-stories tall with the future capability to go two floors higher!  The emergency room will have 40 rooms—10 pediatric and 30 adult—with the goal of treating patients quickly and getting them back home to their loved ones.  The surgery department will open with four operating rooms and one procedure room. The hospital will offer a wide variety of surgical care—ear, nose, throat, hands, feet, and everything in between!  The hospital will open with 56 inpatient rooms (compared to 30 in the current hospital), and the rooms are spacious, welcoming and beautifully decorated.  Each room has a gorgeous view, room for family to visit and stay the night and space to interact with the physician.

Much more to come on the details about the new hospital—this is only the beginning!  In the mean time, we encourage you to comment on this blog with any questions you have or topics you would like to read about.   We are all just as excited as you to watch this building come to life!