Architects RTKL planned and designed the expansion for the network. Jim Johnson, project manager, tells GlobeSt.com that most of the work is now complete, with just some small building backfill construction being done now. A large part of the new project included the new office building, owned by the network's for-profit real estate branch. "From what I've seen, it's about 80% full," he says. The building is connected to the main facility to a walkway that spans every floor, Johnson says.
Besides the offices, the hospital added a new main entrance gallery, atriums and floors dedicated to women and children services. For example, 60 new maternity suites are hotel-room size, with large, windowed family areas, sleeper sofas, microwaves and refrigerators and "daddy workspaces" with internet availability. The 36 new neonatal intensive care rooms allow temperature, noise and lighting controls to be adjusted for the sensitivity of each tiny occupant.
Most of the interior of the 850,000-sf building was gutted, Johnson says, to maximize patient and staff flow. "We revamped the circulation patterns," he says. "Instead of going deep into the hospital to get to outpatient services, and having a spaghetti bowl of trying to get from one place to another, we segregated the staff and public flow, so you don't have to walk through the intensive-care unit just to get to get a chest X-ray."
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