St. Vincent Fishers Hospital Will Serve Growing Indiana Community

INDIANAPOLIS – St. Vincent Fishers Hospital, a 110,000-square-foot inpatient expansion to St. Vincent Medical Center Northeast, is finished and will begin treating patients on April 8. Located in Fishers, Ind., the hospital will serve a community that has experienced explosive growth over the last 15 years. The 50-bed inpatient expansion was designed by BSA LifeStructures and built by Brasfield & Gorrie.

The design of St. Vincent Fishers Hospital focuses on improving the patient care experience for patients and staff. The expansion includes 30 med-surg rooms, 10 observation beds and 10 labor-delivery-recovery-postpartum rooms. The design incorporates elements that reduce stress, expedite the healing process, reduce patient length of stay and improve staff morale and productivity. The LDRP room model eliminates patient room transfers and allows mother and child to spend the entire birthing process in the same room. Point-of-care access to built-in infant warmers and dedicated equipment storage in each LDRP room increases staff efficiency and opportunities for infant care in the LDRP room. Spa rooms offer private settings with upgraded amenities for expectant mothers to labor comfortably in spa tubs. Transom windows in the patient rooms, full height windows at the ends of corridors and wall-to-wall glazing in the waiting rooms increase natural light and connect the interior spaces to the outside environment, all measures that have been proven to help patients heal faster.

Patient satisfaction was addressed by limiting noise in the patient rooms. The acoustic qualities of the triple-paned exterior glazing reduce exposure to disruptive noise levels in patient and public areas. The design also allows maintenance staff to access the patient room linen and trash from the hallway to avoid disturbing the patient. The central location of support spaces increases staff efficiency and allows caregivers to spend more of their time treating patients. Decentralized waiting rooms are more intimately sized inside the unit to bring family and visitors closer to patients and staff.

BSA LifeStructures’ design team worked with St. Vincent Health to incorporate its holistic healing mission into the design of the building. “St. Vincent Health and BSA LifeStructures emphasized the creation of a facility that complements the holistic patient care approach of St. Vincent,” said Carl Johnson, BSA LifeStructures lead architect on the project. “St. Vincent Fishers Hospital strikes a balance between healing, comfort, functionality and symbolism. The individual spaces are warm and inviting, yet taken as a whole; the design of the facility provides a reassuring sense of quality and efficiency. The symbolism behind the selection and placement of materials and artwork serves to inspire and energize staff and patients.”

The orientation of the building’s entry is designed to capture visitors’ attention as they approach the hospital. The open courtyard symbolically reflects the hospital’s embracing of patients as they enter the facility. The glass represents the hospital’s commitment to the spiritual aspect of patient care and healing. The three colors of glass symbolize the three doves in St. Vincent’s logo and the glass pattern represents the Christian belief in a triune God in the form of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that is at the heart of St. Vincent’s holistic healing approach.

“It’s a state-of-the-art facility that differs from other hospitals in one important way; it is built based on the community’s feedback. Over the past several years, we surveyed hundreds of area residents, and their answers form the foundation of the new St. Vincent Fishers Hospital,” says Gary Fammartino, administrator of St. Vincent Fishers Hospital. “They asked for a healthcare destination focused on wellness and prevention, as well as medical treatment where moms could deliver their babies in comfortable birthing suites, and where more physicians and expanded services are available.”

St. Vincent Fishers Hospital is the first hospital in Indiana and the 17th in the nation to register for LEED for Healthcare certification. The facility is on target to be the first hospital in Indiana to achieve the new LEED-HC certification. This new ratings system recognizes sustainable measures that encourage environmental stewardship in healthcare design. These sustainable measures enable St. Vincent to reduce operational costs and increase energy performance while providing a healthy environment for patients, staff and visitors:

• Increased Energy Savings – The expansion achieves a 14 percent improvement in energy savings compared to industry standards.
• Decreased Noise Levels – Patient and staff exposure to disruptive noise levels is reduced through the use of acoustically designed exterior glass panels.
• Improved Stormwater Quality – Stormwater quality treatment units remove 80 percent of the total suspended solids from runoff.
• Reduced Energy Use – Transom windows provide abundance of natural light that complement occupancy sensors for efficient lighting control.
• Reduced Pollution – The project team implemented a Construction Activity Pollution Prevention Plan to reduce pollution and limit wasted materials during construction.