ROYAL OAK, Mich., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- This week, Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak is moving patients into its new $227-million addition that replaces 50-year-old facilities in the original 1955 hospital with contemporary patient rooms and high-tech, high-performance operating rooms.
Planning for the eight-level, 656,000-square-foot South Tower began six years ago in response to the growing demand for care at Beaumont. The new tower will provide Beaumont doctors, nurses and support staff with the latest facilities and equipment to care for patients within a comforting environment that promotes health and well-being.
“When we began planning this new facility, we were committed to do more than provide high-quality medical care,” says John Labriola, senior vice president and director of the Royal Oak hospital. “Our focus was on enhancing the entire patient experience with greater comfort, convenience, service and efficiency of care.”
Individuals, foundations and corporations provided more than $20 million in philanthropic donations to support the creation of the new tower. The donations included a $5-million gift from the Carls Foundation to create the 40-bed William & Marie Carls Children’s Medical Center and a $5-million gift from former Ford Motor Company Chairman Harold Poling and his wife Marian to create the 66-bed Harold & Marian Poling Neuroscience Center.
“These and other generous gifts allowed us to take facilities in the South Tower to a higher level of excellence and to fashion a health care environment designed to exceed the expectations of patients and families,” said Labriola.
The new addition includes 432 inpatient beds for pediatrics, neonatal intensive care, women’s health, neuroscience, orthopedic and cancer patients. Other facilities include 16 high-tech operating rooms for orthopedic and neurosurgery, 10 procedure rooms for outpatient orthopedic, eye and plastic surgeries, medical and surgical short stay units, an infusion center and a fully digital radiology department. Retail areas on the first floor include a Starbucks coffee shop and a mother-baby gift store, along with an expanded gift shop, a flower shop, a deli and a cafe opening early next year.
Planners paid careful attention to creating a healing environment to enhance patient recovery and shorten length-of-stay. Employees, patients and families were involved in the design of patient rooms in the tower with a focus on privacy, comfort and family involvement in patient care. About 40 percent of the 432 beds are in private rooms to enhance infection control and privacy and to reduce costly and inefficient patient transfers. Semi-private rooms feature a unique toe-to-toe bed arrangement providing private space and a window view for both patients. Patient rooms include built-in cabinetry for patient personal items and sleep chairs that fold down into comfortable beds for family members to stay the night.
Patient care units also feature decentralized nursing “pods” located right outside patient rooms to keep caregivers closer to their patients, “team care stations” for medical consultations, and family pantries. The traditional intercom nurse call system has been replaced with low-frequency cell phones to provide quicker access to caregivers and a quieter environment with minimal overhead paging.
Two areas of the tower, funded through philanthropy, recognize the role of mind and spirit in healing. The Pediatric Garden, a 4,000-square-foot indoor garden funded through community donations to the Children’s Miracle Network, is a special area where hospitalized children can enjoy a variety of diversions.
The centerpiece of the tower is the Debra Saber-Salisbury Memorial Garden, a dramatic skylit indoor garden featuring trees and plantings native to Michigan. The area was developed through a $1-million donation from David Salisbury in memory of his wife who died in June 2003.
Neonatal Intensive Care babies were the first patients to occupy the tower on Sept. 20. Remaining patients will be moved by Sept. 24. Operating rooms in the tower will come on line on Sept. 27.
Beaumont, Royal Oak is a 1,061-bed tertiary care, teaching and referral center with Level I trauma designation. It ranks third in the nation for inpatient admissions and second in outpatient surgeries. Beaumont is on the Web at http://www.beaumonthospitals.com/ .
Beaumont Hospitals
CONTACT: Beaumont Hospital Public Relations department, +1-248-551-0740,or Brian Bierley of Beaumont, bbierley@beaumonthospitals.com
Web site: http://www.beaumonthospitals.com/
