The Transformation of Health Care Is Underway

with Steven K. Kappes, M.D., General Surgeon, Advanced Healthcare

Posted: Aug. 1, 2005

The plans are approved. Construction has started. The future of health care is emerging as the new Columbia St. Mary’s Lake Drive Campus takes shape. Designed with the patient at the core of every aspect, this innovative facility will set a new, national standard for patient care. Vastly different from any hospital in the region, Columbia St. Mary’s Lake Drive Campus has been designed to deliver unprecedented patient safety and comfort, explained members of the project management team.

“Research proves that creating healing environments and fostering patient-centered care enable patients to recover faster and easier,” said Robert D. Lyon, M.D., a radiologist on staff at Columbia St. Mary’s. “While designing this facility, that thought was first-most in our minds. Our goal is to reinvent the patient experience by delivering the highest levels of safety, comfort and quality.”

Steven K. Kappes, M.D., General Surgeon, Advanced Healthcare "We have the unique opportunity to truly design a hospital the way it should be."

Going beyond medicine
Planning for the Lake Drive Campus involved a world-class team of architects, staff members, patients, community leaders, physicians and prominent strategic partners. One eminent partner is the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).

“Our goal was to implement the most advanced thinking on how to create the safest and highest quality health care environment in the country,” Dr. Lyon said. “IHI is intently focused on improving health care and understands that requires dramatic change and innovation. Because our focus and understanding mesh so perfectly, it has been an excellent partnership.”

Columbia St. Mary’s is one of only 19 hospitals in the nation that is working with The Center for Health Design’s Pebble Project, a national research effort that provides documented examples of health care facilities whose designs have made a difference in their quality of care and performance.

To ensure that the new hospital is one of the safest ever made, it’s based on a concept known as evidence-based design. This research-based concept demonstrates how architecture and design can be used to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction, while enhancing operational efficiencies.

The strategy involved the creation of full-sized “mock” hospital rooms. Focus groups were able to move equipment and recreate areas. Changing elements and then testing the new dynamics aided in the development of the safest and most efficient room design.

The new Lake Drive Campus is part of Columbia St. Mary’s commitment to fulfilling its legacy of serving the community. “We have the unique opportunity to truly design a hospital the way it should be,” said Steven K. Kappes, M.D., a general surgeon with Advanced Healthcare. “It’s designed with as much flexibility as possible and with a vision of what might be needed 20 to 30 years from now. If more operating or patient rooms are needed in the future, we already know where they will be added.”

Unparalleled safety
“Infection control remains the most important aspect of a safe hospital,” Dr. Lyon said. “Our new, completely digital hospital is designed to radically improve patient safety. It begins with a private room for each patient. This will help prevent the spread of infection between patients.”

Patient rooms are standardized and efficiently designed to reduce the likelihood of falls and minimize staff errors.

The Lake Drive Hospital also will have a next-generation heating and ventilation system. That means more fresh air will be pumped directly into patient rooms, rather than re-circulating stale air—and possibly infectious agents—from room to room.

The hospital’s state-of-the-art electronic health records (EHR) system will also play a major role in increasing safety. “The EHR system is designed with fail-safe mechanisms to protect against treatment or medication errors,” Dr. Lyon said. “It also allows physicians and staff to work more efficiently, freeing up additional time to care for patients.”

Transferring patients from one area of the hospital to another has always been challenging when it comes to maintaining safety and avoiding errors. To reduce the need for patient transfers, the Lake Drive Hospital will have acuity adaptable rooms in some patient care units. These rooms facilitate care for patients at all levels, from general to intensive care.

Comfort for both patient and family
Because stress impedes recovery, the Lake Drive Campus was designed to make the patient experience more comfortable for both the patient and his/her family. “The new hospital will offer a less stressful environment for patients and families,” Dr. Lyon said. “There will be views of the lake, quiet spaces and green space. It will feel more like a hotel than a hospital.”

Locating services and rooms within the hospital will be easier thanks to clear landmarks and signage. Beginning at the front door and continuing throughout the facility, the easy-to-follow guides help avoid patient/visitor confusion.

To help reduce noise and stress and improve sleep for patients, the spacious single-occupancy rooms will include improved acoustics. Patients also will be able to control their own room lighting and temperature. Plus, they’ll have access to their own medical information through the EHR system—right in their rooms. That level of personal empowerment keeps the patient feeling in control, which aids the healing process.

Raising the quality bar
Other design features include large, modular operating and imaging rooms designed to accommodate new technologies and efficient floor layouts to give caregivers clear views of patient rooms. New outpatient units will have private rooms for “short-stay” patients undergoing a procedure or minor surgery.

Four new outpatient centers or specialty institutes—the Cancer Institute, Cardiovascular Institute, Musculoskeletal Institute and Women’s Institute—will allow patients who need multiple services to receive them from an interdisciplinary health care team in one setting.

“Each room will be an inpatient room with all of the amenities, and will be the place for patients to go before and after having a procedure performed,” Dr. Lyon said. “The outpatient procedure rooms will be at the center of the institutes, greatly improving efficiencies and decreasing the risk of injury or error that can occur when moving patients from one point to another,” Dr. Lyon said.

Helping physicians and staff work more efficiently also adds to the quality of patient care. “We’re creating spaces that will make work less labor intensive for staff, such as placing procedure rooms closer to patient rooms,” Dr. Lyon noted. “Separate from clinical areas, there will be comfortable spaces to provide a peaceful respite for staff.”

Dr. Kappes agreed that the new facility design would greatly facilitate patient care. “Patient rooms and units are designed according to how nurses and other caregivers can best help patients,” said Dr. Kappes. “Nursing stations will be decentralized with short travel distances to patients. Supplies will be located nearby, allowing nurses to spend more time delivering care to patients.”

Continuing a passion for patient care
“Naturally, the new facility will maintain the history and heritage of Columbia St. Mary’s, strengthening our ability to provide safe, quality health care and continuing to position us as nationwide leaders,” Dr. Kappes said.

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