Gresham, Smith and Partners has completed Porter Regional Hospital, a 450,000-square-foot replacement hospital in Valparaiso, Ind. The new six-story facility replaces Valparaiso’s 73-year-old county hospital and supports the medical needs of the region’s fast-growing Porter, Lake, Jasper, Newton and Starke counties. Robins & Morton served as general contractor for the project.
The new hospital includes a 229-bed patient tower, 36 outpatient rooms, an emergency department, a 32-bed ICU, a Center for Cardiovascular Medicine and a Women’s and Children’s Pavilion. The facility is strategically and conveniently located on a 104-acre site less than 1 mile from the local toll road. Many of the hospital’s private patient rooms feature views of the Chicago skyline, but spare northwest Indiana residents an hour-long drive into the city for high-quality medical care.
Patients, staff and visitors benefit from improved adjacencies, clear access points and wayfinding that provide quick routes between departments and a natural, intuitive flow through interior spaces. The layout of departments and rooms minimize the steps to services, while increasing the speed of care, boosting patient outcomes and facilitating more private treatments and consultations. GS&P consolidated four departments and three floors of services for the Center for Cardiovascular Medicine to one central location with a dedicated entrance. The ICU, ED, and Women’s and Children’s Pavilion spaces were also consolidated and designed for maximum operational efficiency.
Patient and staff amenities include natural lighting and outdoor views provided by large windows and the extensive use of glass, spacious private patient rooms, bedside computers, Wi-Fi access and advanced-technology patient lifts and other processes. Physicians benefit from the availability of dictation/ reporting areas within nurses stations, private dining spaces and on-call areas. All patients, staff and visitors can enjoy the open lobby, coffee bar, cafeteria, natural pond, pocket park and pavilion, chapel, flat-panel TVs and 100-seat community room.
In addition to offering the community a new-and-improved healthcare facility, Porter Regional Hospital’s construction also served as a significant economic stimulus. The project, which began in May 2010, functioned as an economic driver and recovery package for the region during the height of the recession. More than 36 companies local to Indiana, northwest Indiana and the Chicago, Ill. area were engaged on the construction project, representing over $110 million and 97 percent of the project’s total trade cost. Approximately 90 percent of the project’s trade labor was hired from the same local market. At the peak of construction, there was a 450+ person workforce on site.
