Miami Valley Hospital Unveils New Patient Tower, Redefines Industry Care
Tower transforms campus and offers an environment focused on peace and healing
Dayton, OH (December 12, 2010) –Miami Valley Hospital lifted the curtain to its 12-story, $135 million patient tower today ushering in a new way of health care to the greater Dayton market.
The hospital officially opened the tower with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a community celebration. Visitors coming to the hospital saw a much different MVH than in years past. The project – which was one of the largest in Dayton’s history – has become the catalyst for change for the entire downtown campus.
Visitors are now greeted by running water and abundant greenery instead of a maze of asphalt. And inside, the 484,000-square-foot tower successfully marries some of the industry’s best technology with many of nature’s truest components – both working together to heal patients and adequately equip caregivers.
“Four years ago, Miami Valley Hospital embarked on a study of the campus to determine what needed to be done to keep Miami Valley at the top of its industry,” said Mary Boosalis, chief executive officer. “Clinical services devoted to heart and vascular treatment became one of the clear answers. What we soon realized, however, was that the project would be less about a building addition and more about creating a holistic approach to health care and healing.”
One of the main benefits of the new patient tower is the consolidation of MVH’s cardiac services into one location. Prior to the new patient tower, patients had to travel to different parts of the hospital to undergo testing or surgery. Three of the tower’s five patient care floors are devoted to cardiac care. Those floors house a little more than 100 of the tower’s 178 private patient rooms.
All of The Heart and Vascular Center’s outpatient testing is done on the tower’s main level. The center’s outpatient testing floor includes four stress test rooms, five patient dressing rooms, two EKG rooms, two Echo rooms, one Tilt testing room and two rooms for nuclear medicine and cardiac scanning. The center’s stress testing area is more than double the size of the former space which allows each patient to have their own private room, fully visible to caregivers monitoring them from the main station outside.
The patient tower is also home to MVH’s Orthopedic Center, which is located on the 8th and 9th floors. The Orthopedic Center has 72 rooms for patients who have undergone spinal or joint surgery. An 865-square-foot physical therapy area is located on the eighth floor and patient rooms are now large enough to comfortably accommodate bulky rehabilitation equipment.
The nursing care delivered in MVH’s new tower will be much different than before. Down the corridor of the patient care floors are 12 private patient rooms manned by three separate caregiver stations. Each nurse’s station has an alcove that keeps vital medicine and supplies at the caregiver’s fingertips so they are never far from their patient’s reach.
The floor’s layout and design was inspired by the hundreds of caregivers who were consulted both before and during construction. The result is a working environment that is safer and more flexible than in previous generations, and also more in line with the needs of the 21st century caregiver.
Patients and their loved ones will experience a new level of care beyond what nurses or doctors provide. An important element of the patient tower –designed by Columbus-based NBBJ Architects – was to provide a place of peace and healing. Pockets of respite in forms of gardens and quiet television-free waiting rooms offer visitors, patients and employees a chance to be still in an otherwise stressful environment.
“Our goal was to create various quiet zones or places where people could sit and relax,” Burns said. “Research has shown that access to nature and quiet places can only help reduce stress and offer more comfort.”
The tower will soon come to life now that the ribbon has been cut. MVH will move patients to the new tower beginning on December 28. Meanwhile, the rest of the hospital will see a subtle change take place in 2011 when 98 percent of its remaining patient rooms are converted to private by the second quarter.