Jonathan Bailey Associates Completes Construction for Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women &Amp; Babies
Posted on: Thursday, 29 June 2006, 15:00 CDT
Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies, designed by healthcare architecture firm Jonathan Bailey Associates, opened to patients May 30, 2006. The $111 million, 273-bed, 400,000 square-foot hospital is the latest addition to the Arnold Palmer Medical Center and expands the center's women's and neonatal intensive care services. It houses 11 floors and includes the Hughes Center for Fetal Diagnostics as well as the fourth largest Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the United States. The firm conceptualized the facility as more hotel than hospital, creating a striking composition of dark glass and masonry towers immersed within a landscape of various levels. The signature design incorporates a main entrance lobby housed in a glass sphere with a dramatic cable-suspended entry canopy. Upon entering patients and visitors are met with a sense of flair, cutting-edge architecture and a facility designed with more than just medical services considered.
On the inside, the building strives to achieve a level of beauty and function that goes beyond the clinical to communicate a sense of well being, comfort and ease. In place of the characteristic overhead fluorescents, cove lighting is used, offering a softer feel and avoiding direct light above patients as they travel on gurneys. Glass is used extensively to bring the outside world inside thus providing an abundance of natural lighting. Wayfinding graphics go beyond the typical sterile signage. Rooms have been specifically designed to deliver a higher sense of privacy for the patients and their families while utilizing interior design methods of concealing equipment with retractable artwork or moveable textiles.
"Building a hospital is like building a home, a place where life begins and continues with dignity, grace, privacy and discretion," explained Jonathan Bailey, president, Jonathan Bailey Associates. "A hospital for women and their babies should exude a healing, family-oriented atmosphere that mirrors the service provided by the caregivers. And it must be a pleasant and functional workplace for the staff."
To create an efficient working space, a vertical design was chosen. This feature offers three main nursing unit towers clustered around a central core and elevator shaft. It is a break from the traditional "racetrack" layouts, which require staff members to cover long hall-like distances. On each floor, nursing units radiate from the core in a "cloverleaf pod" arrangement. This improves observation and patients-to-staff proximity. The efficiency of this solution cuts down on hallway space and allows an impressive 78 percent of the building's total space to be dedicated to actual departmental use. This percentage of usable space is well above the normal 60-65 percent range.
The "cloverleaf pod" nursing units consist of three, 10- 12-bed, circular modules rotated around the elevator core. This configuration reduces the gross floor area typically required for a 30-bed nursing unit. Strategically placed nurse stations minimize the distance between nurses and patients. The modules can also be converted to other uses as necessary.
At the core of this new hospital are its healing environment elements. Understanding that the surrounding environment can have a dramatic impact on the road to recovery, this distinctive design incorporates a sense of serenity throughout with the use of soft, calming colors and tones. It provides private rooms with Murphy beds, improved patient coverage through patient-centered flow and functionally centralized nursing stations, and a flexible space to respond to future needs. Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies Fast Facts:
-- 273-beds -- 400,000 square feet -- 11 floors -- 112-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit -- the fourth largest in the United States -- 30 Labor & Delivery rooms -- Post-partum, high-risk ante partum units -- Gynecology services -- Hughes Center for Fetal Diagnostics -- Healing environment design elements: -- Private rooms with Murphy beds -- Patient-centered flow and function -- Acoustic control features to diminish noise levels -- Natural lighting with oversized windows in patient rooms -- Flexible space to respond to future needs
About Jonathan Bailey Associates
JBA has significant international expertise in hospital design for women and children, leading numerous major projects including the design of Children's Cancer Hospital in Cairo, Egypt, which will be the second-largest hospital in the world dedicated to pediatric cancer care, with 400,000 square feet and 150-pediatric beds. The firm is also responsible for renovation, expansion and new construction projects at Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas; Colorado Springs Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Barking, Havering & Redbridge Acute Care Hospital outside London in Romford, England; and elsewhere.
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Kim Knights 972-395-9034 Contact via http://www.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=CB995A048A2DE7D6
SOURCE: Jonathan Bailey Associates
Source: MARKET WIRE
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