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John Muir Health Breaks Ground on Walnut Creek Building Project
Walnut Creek, Jan. 16, 2008 - Culminating years of meticulous planning, John Muir Health is breaking ground today on a new five-story, 347,000-square-foot facility - The Thomas J. and Muriel T. Long Patient Care Tower - at John Muir Medical Center - Walnut Creek Campus.
"This exceptional facility has been designed to meet the region's growing health care needs - now and for generations to come," says J. Kendall Anderson, president and CEO of John Muir Health. "Design plans incorporate current and anticipated innovations in medical care."
At the same time, the building has been designed around patients and their families. "Central to the planning of this comforting, healing environment is recognition of the patient as a person. We've considered, and built into our plans, new knowledge about the promotion of health and well-being of patients in the hospital setting," explains Jane Willemsen, president and CAO of John Muir Medical Center - Walnut Creek Campus.
To meet increasing community needs, particularly among the area's aging population, the new facility will increase the number of beds at the medical center by 27 percent, for a total of 416. This includes the addition of 230 new private rooms, a 24-bed intensive care unit and a 35-bed intensive care neonatal nursery.
The new building will also house 3 new surgical suites to accommodate innovations well into the future, and a dramatic enhancement of emergency services, including replacement of one existing trauma room with four new, spacious trauma rooms and double the number of non-trauma emergency stations from 22 to 44.
"Planners have kept a mind's eye on flexibility and adaptability to change in all clinical areas," explains Willemsen. "For example, the column-free space from the perimeter of the building to the center of the patient care units will allow a future shift in design and location of rooms, if we discover we need to make changes down the road.
"Likewise, in the surgery department," she adds, "operating rooms have been designed to accommodate prolific advances in guided imagery and other surgical innovations on the near and far horizon."
The new facility will be nearly paperless, filmless and wireless. Current initiatives, such as electronic medical records and computerized physician order entry, will have matured, and use of laptop computers and tablets at the bedside will be widespread. These and other related initiatives have been purposefully designed to improve patient safety - a leading priority of the building project.
New patient rooms, mostly private, are built around optimal space planning, noise reduction and privacy, incorporation of natural elements, and well-planned choices in lighting, colors and textures - all features now known to contribute to improved health and patient satisfaction.
Careful attention to patient care, safety and comfort is most eloquently demonstrated in plans for the new 35-bed intensive care neonatal nursery. Noise control, lighting conducive to newborn well-being, and all aspects of the bonding experience between parents and high-risk newborns have been incorporated into the plans. Specific measures are also being taken to ensure an environment free of dioxins, phthalates, mercury and halogenated fire retardants.
Sustainability has been another important priority in the planning process. Sustainable materials will be used in ceilings, walls, casework and flooring. Construction will employ use of recycled steel and drywall made of recycled newspaper, phone books and corrugated cartons. The new building will be eco-friendly and will meet or exceed all local, state and federal regulations for new construction.
The new building has been named The Thomas J. and Muriel T. Long Patient Care Tower to honor the generosity of the Thomas J. Long Foundation. The Foundation's gift of $9.5 million continues the Long Family's support - spanning more than 50 years - of John Muir Medical Center - Walnut Creek Campus.
Dovetailing the groundbreaking of the Walnut Creek facility on Jan. 16 will be start of another major building project being initiated by John Muir Health. On Feb. 7, John Muir Medical Center - Concord Campus will break ground on its five-story, 174,000-square-foot patient tower, which will include an expanded emergency department and also house the Cardiovascular Institute.
The two building projects represent an $800 million investment in the health of the East Bay community. Funding for the projects is covered by health system reserves, hospital bonds and philanthropy.
(Posted February 4, 2008)