HOK Finishes First Phase of 45-Acre Medical Center in Lafayette, La.

Project Includes Sensible Approach to More Efficient and Staff Friendly Hybrid Rooms

LAFAYETTE, LA. – The first phase of HOK’s master-planned 45-acre campus for Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center is unfolding with the debut of a new $211-million hospital and medical office building. HOK designed the 396,000-square-foot hospital with up to 200 beds. The Estopinal Group designed the 104,000-square-foot medical office. The new campus was conceived to make the most efficient use of space to deliver the highest functionality and best patient outcomes. Averaging 2,000 square feet per bed, the new hospital is 10 to 20 percent smaller than similar community hospitals built in the last five years.

The new complex replaces an existing 263-bed facility.  In addition to up to 200 beds, the full-service hospital includes eight operating rooms, 19 emergency rooms and 24 intensive care rooms.  Its design achieves efficiencies by uniting three main functions of the hospital: inpatient services, ambulatory care and diagnostic treatment. The diagnostic and treatment functions are readily shared via a link to the inpatient and ambulatory facilities.

Efficient Use of Space
HOK’s highly efficient layout reduced expensive diagnostic areas which allowed more resources to be allocated to patient care.  The architects saved space by creating hybrid exam and procedure rooms that reduced underutilized space by 9,000 square feet and decreased travel distances, allowing more time for patient/caregiver interaction and streamlining patient movement through the system.

In a traditional layout, diagnostic and treatment areas would have dedicated exam/procedure rooms that would be largely unused in the evening.  Similarly, the emergency department would have rooms that would go unused during daytime when patient volumes are low.  The hybrid rooms address this issue by uniting diagnostics, procedures and the emergency department in a shared configuration of three 10-bed units for procedures and examinations.

Patient rooms were designed as same-handed for safety and angled to capture exterior views. All private patient rooms are 30 percent larger than the present hospital to afford more working space around the bed and to improve comfort for visitors and family.

More effective and efficient care is delivered via 14-bed/nurse station units strategically located closer to patient rooms. A pneumatic tube system delivers supplies, saving time and keeping caregivers at bedside. The hospital is completely wireless to enhance communication between staff and patients.

Light and water combine to enhance the healing environments.  Daylight enters through open corridors, clerestories in clinical spaces and balcony/porch areas throughout the facility.  Water was a central element of the interior design, with water features visible inside and outside. Connections to nature are also made through a garden entry court, green roofs at the patient tower, courtyards and outdoor dining. Even as the campus expands, the intertwining gardens and openness to daylight will be preserved.

A chapel, ornamented with tall stained-glass windows, energizes the core of the hospital, both physically and spiritually.

Poised for growth, future phases of the master plan call for a third patient tower with 168 beds, a new heart hospital, more office buildings and a parking garage. Additionally, architects designed the medical center to easily accommodate two more floors above the new patient tower adding another 96 beds.

Founded by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady in 1949, Our Lady of Lourdes is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, the largest locally-owned, not-for-profit health system in Louisiana. Lourdes employs more than 1,200 people, in addition to offering a staff of more than 400 physicians active in various medical and surgical specialties.

Joining HOK on the project were Lafayette-based The Lemoine Co. and Birmingham, Ala.-based Brasfield & Gorrie, serving as joint-venture construction managers, Jefferson, Ind.-based The Estopinal Group as architect-of-record; and Navigant Consulting as the program manager.