SPRINGFIELD, Ill.—Kahler Slater, an architecture, strategic advisory, interior design, and environmental branding firm, joins Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) in unveiling the opening of its expanded, family-centered Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital in Springfield.

With the nationwide trend of increasing premature births, HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital needed to make drastic changes to their existing 45-bed, 15,000-square-foot Level III NICU. At the outset, project leaders knew they wanted to build upon the latest evidence-based design learnings from other best-in-class facilities. The design team and clinicians visited multiple benchmark facilities for NICU care in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. They were able to collaborate with staff and leadership to get a sense for lessons learned and best practices to bring forward.

Led by Dr. Beau Batton, Chief Neonatologist at HSHS St. John’s, the clinical design team along with Kahler Slater and women and children’s healthcare experts, Smith Hager Bajo, targeted multiple patient outcomes that could be improved with the new environment, including average length of stay and rate of readmission, among others. The team will be gathering post-occupancy data to determine the success of the desired outcomes.

Phase I of the expanded NICU is more than double the original size at 36,500 square feet, with a total of 56 beds. Innovative features of the expanded program include:

• Single family rooms where parents can stay overnight with their infant.
• Dedicated rooms for NICU twins and their families to stay together.
• A tiny baby sub-unit dedicated to the highly specialized needs of the smallest patients.
• A milk lab where milk technicians can fortify mothers’ breastmilk with additional nutrients.
• A dedicated family respite lounge and overnight sleep suites will be available when Phase II opens later this year.

With the new units up and running, St. John’s will have the unique offering of couplet care. This care strategy was first introduced in Sweden at the Karolinska Institute in 2007 and there are only ten states in the nation offering this innovative program. It allows mom and their NICU baby to stay in the same room, establishing the essential parent-child bond from the outset. Positive outcomes as a result of couplet care have proven to be decreases in length-of-stay and infant morbidity. Couplet care also supports earlier bonding of NICU infant and mother due to earlier skin-to-skin contact and increased breastfeeding success.

As a family-centered environment, care was taken to make sure the design aesthetic of the space was appealing to the entire family. Thoughtful attention was given to light-filled care spaces and corridors. The clean and bright interior was then accented with simple shapes, pops of bold color and botanical graphics. These elements support wayfinding and help emphasize the smaller ‘neighborhoods’ throughout the floor. The overall palette maintains a consistent aesthetic with the standards established with the larger HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital, as well as the new HSHS St. John’s Women’s and Children’s Clinic (also designed by Kahler Slater) across the street.

St. Johns has a 78-year history of caring for premature and critically ill infants. As the only Level III NICU in the Illinois area, the hospital cares for about 700 babies annually from a 39-county area.

The post Illinois Hospital Debuts Neonatal Intensive Care Unit appeared first on HCO News.

Designing a neonatal intensive care unit requires addressing the medical, developmental, emotional, and social needs of not only the infants but the families and staff as well. Due to the level of care that the patients in these units require, the guidelines and recommendations for interior design are some of the most complex in the healthcare industry. Many studies have concluded that the built environment has a tangible effect on not only the infants being treated, but the family members and caregivers as well.

The first step to take when designing a NICU is deciding whether to pursue the single-family room model, open-bay unit, or a hybrid of both. That choice will have a direct impact on the privacy, both social and acoustical, of a family during their stay in the unit. Parents and caregivers have found healthcare spaces with a significant number of amenities reduce their stress and anxiety.

Finding Child-Friendly Finishes

The selection of finishes within these units should be carefully considered to meet the “recommended standards for newborn ICU design.” These guidelines state that wall and floor finishes shall be easily cleanable, prevent growth of microorganisms, and have a low gloss value to reduce glare risk on the infant or medical professional. Indoor air quality is a growing concern within all built environments that humans are occupying but becomes crucial for a newborn ICU as the baby’s organs are still developing. Wall and floor products as well as furnishings need to be researched fully to ensure that they are free of VOCs and PVCs that would off-gas and pollute the air. Manufacturers of surface products have increasingly become more sustainable and transparent about the contents of their goods due to the growth of programs such as Cradle-to-Cradle Product Innovation, LEED, and WELL standards. To create an environment free of respiratory irritants for infants with under-developed immune systems, cleaner and more natural products like rubber or linoleum sheet flooring could be utilized.

Although the genetic makeup and physical appearance of the finishes selected should be carefully studied, designers must also think about the imagery being provided in the unit. Often designers will create a child-friendly concept for infant spaces, including bright colors and graphics of animals or flora. Before specifying, we should be discussing any symbols that the care team may use to signify loss. For example, many hospitals will use a purple butterfly at the entrance to a patient space that was part of a multiples birth, but sadly one or more of the siblings did not survive. To prevent confusion for staff or emotional distress for parents, it would be best to stay away from those graphics for decorative art.

When selecting finishes for an infant care space, it is imperative to remember that the lighting will reflect any color tones that are on the walls or flooring to the adjacent surfaces. This includes the baby itself, which can be of concern since perception of skin tones like yellow can often be evidence of conditions such as jaundice. Finishes that are blue, purple, or pink can often help family members with positive distraction and keep care teams energized, but the colorful materials should be kept away from any indirect lighting that’s designed to bounce off of the vertical surfaces to illuminate the room.

Keeping Quiet

Acoustic control in the patient zone is of utmost importance to the health of the infant patients and staff. Quieter environments are supports fewer errors and more sustained attention for better decision-making. Less noise also reduces staff stress, burnout, and turn-over which yields greater well-being for professionals.

While hospital noises of beeping equipment, rolling carts, and breast milk refrigerators whirring are challenging to get around, acoustics within the infant care space need to be carefully studied. Privacy for staff-parent conversations, freedom from distracting sounds, and the ability to achieve uninterrupted sleep should be attainable goals for that space. Since the ceiling is the largest available area for sound absorption, it is pertinent to specifying a product that has a noise reduction coefficient of 0.90 for 80% of the surface to overall acoustical liveliness and propagation of sound between spaces.

Sound travels between rooms through one or more paths. When we evaluate sound’s the source, path, and receiver, the emphasis of the acoustical design can focus on the path of noise. While some sources of noise like human activity can be reduced by adjusting behaviors in the suite, but other sources of noise – like medical equipment — are out of our control. Further, locating sensitive rooms away from active areas or entry ways to the NICU suite helps in separating some of the sources away from the room by allowing for longer paths of noise.

24/7 Lighting

Lighting and lighting controls are other elements of intense scrutiny in the design of NICU’s. There is nothing new about the importance of getting newborns on the solar clock from birth or the benefits babies receive from a dynamic system. It has been established that newborns sleep better, have a faster rate of weight gain, begin oral feeding earlier, spend less time on a ventilator and exhibit enhanced motor functions (‘The NICU Lighted Environment’ by Mark Rea and Mariana Figueiro) when exposed to a cycling lighting system that mimics the sun.

The lighting industry has been designing NICU rooms with color-changing and dimmable lighting solutions for decades — long before LEDs were anything more than an indicator light on a clock radio or car dashboard. While today’s color-changing or tunable white LED lighting systems simplify the lighting product, there are still many considerations for an effective system that supports all users, functions, and budgets. As a 24/7 space, the lighting and lighting controls must be in sync and work seamlessly from the moment of installation. COVID-19 has added another level of complexity with the discussion of UV sterilizing systems that can only occur when the room is not occupied.

Products that meet all requirements remain limited, but there are a handful of lighting fixtures that solve many of the issues when paired with strategic design and coordination. Our lighting experts are continually working with manufacturers to create an installation that is one system and completely turnkey.

Evolving NICU

The ever-changing market of interior products is widening the spectrum of what a neonatal care space can look and feel like. By utilizing healthy products that have high acoustic properties and lighting that embraces the newest technologies, these care spaces can lead to quicker development of infants, less stress for families and easier working conditions for care teams.

Nicole DeFazio is an interior designer based in Stantec’s Pittsburgh, Pa., office. She implements creative ideas, provides guidance, and offers sustainable designs to healthcare clients resulting in spaces that inspire and comfort patients, visitors, and the care team.

Basel Jurdy is the discipline lead for acoustics & vibration based in Stantec’s Seattle office. He educates the client and project team on the art and science behind acoustics to find the right acoustical solution for each individual project.

Lauren MacLeod is a lighting designer based in Stantec’s Seattle office. She knows light can affect well-being (good and bad) and combines research findings, technical knowledge, and sensitive design techniques to create lighting scenarios that benefit occupants.

The post Creating Safe and Healthy NICUs for the Littlest Patients appeared first on HCO News.

LOS ANGELES – Construction and development firm SKANSKA announced it has been granted a $188.3 million contract from CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center (HPMC) to begin work on the new Acute Care Hospital Building at HPMC in Hollywood, Calif.

This is a part of CHA HPMC’s Campus upgrade aimed to better serve healthcare needs in their community while completing state seismic requirements. KMD architects broke ground on the latest phase of the $350 million project May 2018.

The complete project involves a 175,000-square-foot, five-story building and replacing the existing emergency department and kitchen, including medical/surgical patient unit, labor and delivery department, NICU, clinical lab, morgue and information technology services. The replacement runs at an estimated cost of $291 million, according to a press release.

In addition to this, demolition and upgrades will be made to existing structures to support the new tower including remodeling approximately 20,000-square-feet of the adjacent patient tower currently standing. Further work includes the revamp of the current courtyard and lobby, building a new ramp for the existing parking structure and repositioning of existing site utilities.

The new patient tower will include a doubled-in-size emergency department in comparison to the current emergency department – with 20 exam rooms along with a private exam room for women’s services, and over 26,000-square-feet of space.

The new department will also include a chest pain observation area and detox area. Furthermore, a new maternity and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with 13 labor/delivery/recovery rooms, three surgical suites and 19 NICU beds will allow it to become one of the largest birthing departments in Los Angeles.

Lastly, the tower will contain a new medical/surgical unit with private rooms and a floor consisting of seven operating rooms, 20 pre-operative and recovery beds, a cardiac catheterization laboratory, and an electrophysiology laboratory.

Construction is slated for completion in late 2020 and the emergency department intends to be available for 2020 occupancy.

$300 million of this project is being funded through a federal government loan and financial institutions.

Reports from KMD architects and Business Newswire contributed to this story.

The post New Acute Care Hospital Awards SKANSKA Large Contract appeared first on HCO News.

The project team for the expansion included THW Design in San Antonio as the architect on the project, with San Antonio-based Brandt Construction serving as the general contractor. The new tower includes 147 rooms, a dedicated children’s imaging department with a new state-of-the-art CT scanner, an ultrasound room and X-ray rooms.

The Methodist Hospital, owned by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), has added over 400,000 square feet to the Methodist Campus since the completion of the new Children’s Hospital addition. The expansion of the Children’s Hospital added 15 new emergency rooms, increasing the number from 25 to 40. The new tower also adds 18 beds in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a total of 94 beds. The recent addition makes the Methodist Children’s Hospital one of the largest NICU’s in the area.

“The growing demands for children’s services in San Antonio and South Texas really is what led to this,” said Robert Lenza, chief executive officer at the Children’s Hospital in a recent statement. “Our population continues to grow. A few years ago we realized we needed to build even more expansive rooms for our patients.”

The hospital was originally built in 1998, and was the first hospital in South Texas designed to meet the specific needs of children. Along those lines, the new expansion was designed with plenty of bright colors and windows to continue with this long tradition, with a plan to design the space to reflect the community the hospital serves.

“We built specific rooms so that families can stay together,” said Lenza in a recent statement. “We took into account the demographic of all types of families we have here in San Antonio.”

The post Methodist Children’s Hospital Tower in San Antonio Celebrates Grand Opening appeared first on HCO News.

The 300,000-square-foot building has a budget of $275 million, and will be located on the southern end of the medical campus. HuntonBrady Architects in Orlando is the architect on the project. The new facility addition was planned after extensive research was conducted on healthcare service needs in the area. The medical center’s goals for this facility are to work toward the eventual elimination of semi-private rooms as part of a longer-term master facility plan.

The eight-story building will have both inpatient and outpatient space once complete, and is intended to be a healthcare destination that will provide compassionate and family-centered care for children and women of all ages. The new facility will provide a full-service 33-bed pediatric emergency department with imaging services, 17 private suites for labor, delivery, recovery and high-risk antepartum services. Birthing suites will be designed to create maximum comfort for its patients and childbirth and other educational classes will be made available at the new facility. There will be a 30-bed pediatric floor, including 12-bed pediatric intensive care unit, with space for family members who need to stay overnight.

There will also be a 32-bed mother-baby unit, designed to allow women and their newborns to room together. Additionally, the facility will have a Level-III NICU to provide premie-care with 30 beds and treatment for critically ill infants. The hospital will have a pediatric surgery department with four pediatric surgery suites, a 10-bed post-anesthesia care unit and a 17-bed pre/post-operative unit. Additionally, the Carol Jenkins Pavilion will have an outpatient obstetric clinic. Other amenities of the pavilion will include a state-of-the-art auditorium, cafeteria, a chapel and a gift shop.

The post Carol Jenkins Barnett Pavilion for Women and Children on Target for 2018 Completion appeared first on HCO News.

The company said it has invested almost $20 million to revive the University General Hospital-Dallas (UGH-Dallas) as a profitable provider of acute-care medical services within the community, but its efforts could not keep the hospital open. The 111-bed hospital laid off more than 100 health care workers in mid-December to cut costs as it was working with potential buyers. The company was trying to negotiate a deal with lenders, creditors and capital sources to secure an agreement that would avoid closing UGH-Dallas, but funding was not readily available. University General Health System was forced to close the Dallas facility in an effort to maintain its flagship Houston hospital, University General Hospital.

The health care provider bought UGH-Dallas, located in the Oak Cliff area of South Dallas, for $30 million two years ago.

“In December 2012, University General Health System purchased South Hampton Hospital in Dallas, renamed the facility UGH-Dallas, and immediately began investing the necessary capital to recreate a hospital that the community could be proud of,” said Dr. Hassan Chahadeh, the health care company’s chairman and CEO, in a statement. “This decision is one of the most difficult and challenging in the company’s history, and one that we were not anticipating, but we were left with no other options.”

The former South Hampton Community Hospital had financial difficulties, as well, going through two bankruptcies in recent years, and was briefly forced to close about five years ago, according to the Dallas Observer.

UGH-Dallas was touted as a success story for Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ GrowSouth initiative, which is a program that includes capital improvement projects throughout southern Dallas.

University General said it continues to work with lenders on a closing process, including the payment of the hospital’s payroll obligations. On Dec. 15, the health care provider announced that Dallas-based Cornerstone Healthcare Group will buy TrinityCare Senior Living, a subsidiary of University General Health System.

“We believe the Dallas closing will advance the company’s overall restructuring efforts by consolidating our future business operations around Houston’s University General Hospital as our flagship facility. Ultimately, the pending sale of our senior living segment, combined with the disposition of UGH-Dallas, should allow the company to eliminate almost $60 million in debt,” Chahadeh said in a statement.

The post University General Closes Dallas Hospital appeared first on HCO News.