Scripps Health Celebrates Ribbon Cutting on Barbey Family Emergency and Trauma Center

LA JOLLA, Calif. – Scripps Health recently cut the ribbon on the Barbey Family Emergency and Trauma Center on the Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla campus in California. The new $33-million facility includes 51 private beds, four ambulance bays and the latest medical technology for treating everything from cuts and falls to major life-threatening injuries.

The 33,000-square-foot center is six times larger than the space it replaces in the campus’ original hospital building. The new center is located on the first floor of the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute.

Philanthropic funding for the center was led by a gift from the Barbey family. Other donations included a gift from the David Whitmire Hearst Jr. Foundation, which supported the naming of the trauma area inside the new center after Brent Eastman, M.D., former Scripps chief medical officer and trauma surgeon.

Highlights include:

• Four trauma bays that can expand to eight in a disaster
• Four psychiatric beds
• Four negative pressure rooms for infection isolation
• Four ambulance bays

Patient comfort at center of design
Each room and bay contains a continuous vital signs monitor; a bedside clinical staff computer; a rolling bed that can measure the weight of a patient for medication dosage and other needs and a storage cart filled with extra pillows, blankets and other supplies.

All of the rooms also include flat-screen televisions and seating for family members and other visitors. The screens can be used to display patient images, such as X-rays and other medical information during discussions with clinicians.

The 16-bed David Whitmire Hearst, Jr. Foundation Observation Area offers more secluded rooms designed for patients waiting to undergo more extensive testing, particularly elderly patients who might be more comfortable in a quieter atmosphere. Each room is enhanced by natural light from large windows.

A waiting room bathed in natural light from large windows provides comfortable seating and tables equipped with power jacks for charging mobile phones, tablets and laptop computers. The center also features a subdued color palette to help increase patients’ sense of well-being and to boost the healing process. Artwork depicting San Diego’s natural beauty is placed throughout the center and in every patient room, thanks to the generosity of donors who have supported the project.

Patients and visitors can park in a surface parking area located directly in front of the center’s main entrance, which features a covered, weather-protected driveway for drop offs.

The designer was HOK and the Design-Build general contractor was McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

Photo courtesy of Scripps Health.