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Catholic Health today opened a new patient care pavilion at its Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, New York.
The $500 million project includes an emergency department with 75 treatment rooms, dedicated spaces for adult and pediatric patients, a secure waiting area and 36 medical-surgical rooms. Each medical-surgical room is equipped with a private bathroom, video conferencing capabilities and smart room technology to help increase patient comfort, Catholic Health he said in a statement.
The project is designed to help staff respond more quickly to trauma, stroke, cardiac and other emergencies through an expanded ambulance bay and direct vertical access from the emergency department to the pavilion’s 16 operating rooms, two of which are hybrid surgical suites, the company said.
In an interview, Christine Flaherty, Catholic Health’s senior vice president of real estate development and facilities management, said stakeholder input was key to the changes, which put a premium on patient privacy. Before construction, the hospital created large-scale mock-ups and asked doctors, nurses and patient advocates to help shape the design, layout and workflow of the facility.
Ensuring patient-centered care was “an important component of how the planning for this project was done,” Flaherty said. “Based on this building and future buildings that we might be looking at in all cases, the more private rooms we can make, the better for our care teams, for patients and their families and loved ones.”
A reflection of broader health trends
The healthcare industry is moving more non-urgent and less invasive care to outpatient settings, according to one CBRE report released on Tuesday.
At the Good Samaritan University Hospital expansion, “We’re trying to balance that trend and fewer visits to the same hospital,” Flaherty said. “Both are important strategic focuses for Catholic Health: making sure we have an ambulatory footprint in the communities we serve, as well as making sure we can realize private, modern patient rooms whenever possible and economically viable for our campuses.”
According to the organization, these private patient rooms have nearly tripled those in the legacy building.
To improve the hospital’s operational efficiency, the upgrades include vertical integration of building systems and greater utility efficiency, including a dedicated mechanical floor for mid-building operations.
“Those are definitely things that we’ve looked at very carefully, being able to quickly get to the things that you’re maintaining so that you can really make sure that you never fall and that you can always switch to other units,” Flaherty said. “If you maintain the units, that translates into productivity for everyone in the building.”
The dedicated mechanical floor, directly adjacent to the OR platform, is also covered so that technicians do not have to be exposed to the elements in bad weather to work on mechanical systems.
“It’s actually proven to be a much better way to service, maintain and maintain equipment over a longer period of time, which, frankly, is what we want to do,” Flaherty said. “We really want to get the most out of every investment we’ve made from an infrastructure perspective.”
To enhance the patient experience, the upgrades also include elements of natural light, noise reduction and memorial spaces.
