The pediatric intensive care units at Texas Children’s Hospital’s Lester and Sue Smith Legacy Tower was awarded the ICU Design Award, sponsored by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the American Institute of Architects. The Texas Children’s Hospital and CannonDesign team received the award at the Society for Critical Care Medicine annual conference.
Legacy Tower’s pediatric intensive care unit includes 84 new pediatric ICU patient rooms, dedicated neurological and cardiac ICU rooms, surgical ICU rooms and a transitional ICU. The new rooms are almost triple the size of the previous patient rooms, and have improved the patient and caregiver experience, as well as made work more efficient for staff.
The rooms include dedicated furniture for family members to stay overnight within the patient room. Staff have large locker rooms, a respite room and bigger work rooms for nurses and providers. Consult rooms were added on every floor for private conversations, with video capabilities that allow all family members to participate. Each inpatient room also has a custom-built display that lists the patient’s personalized needs and restrictions for all those entering the room.
This inpatient pediatric tower is the realization of the CareFirst at Texas Children’s initiative that Texas Children’s launched in 2014 to provide a solution that will ensure the hospital’s ability to care for children who need their specialized services. Expanded inpatient and outpatient capabilities allow Texas Children’s to serve more children with critical congenital heart conditions. A new helistop atop the tower – specially designed to screen the view of the pad – means the most critically ill children receive care rapidly.
Photo source: cannondesign.com.
