A former emergency room at Morris Hospital, Morris, Illinois, was re-envisioned into a shared preparatory and recovery space that reduces steps for hospital staff and increases patient satisfaction. The project team included DesignGroup and Pepper Construction.
Interventional prep/recovery is part of the phase two renovations recently completed at Morris Hospital. The unit features five private bays for patients preparing for and recovering from an interventional radiology or cath lab procedure, such as angioplasty, pacemaker or defibrillator insertion or a peripherally inserted central catheter line insertion.
With three departments — cardio diagnostics, imaging and cath lab — sharing one space, the design team needed to simulate the patient and work flows to ensure the hospital that a combined space was feasible.
The workflow demonstrated that creating an interventional recovery department allowed the same staff to prepare and oversee recovery of cath patients. For patients, this means seeing the same faces going in and coming out of the procedure. Additionally, recovery time can be significant for cath patients, and the recovery area allows family members to join them during recovery — a change enjoyed by patients and anxious loved ones, alike.
In addition to more comfortable patients, the hospital gained a better patient flow in the cath lab and in imaging. With recovery nearby but not in those departments, rooms are freed up more quickly.
The 14,500-square-foot phase two project cost $5.9 million to complete. Phase two also completed the upgrades to the imaging services department and relocation of the cardio diagnostic department, including new stress testing, EMG equipment and a new tilt table that is used to assist with specialized diagnostic studies.
The next phase of the renovations, beginning this summer, will modernize the hospital’s peri-operative services facilities, including the operating rooms, procedural and GI rooms, sterile processing and ambulatory surgery unit.
Morris Hospital’s renovated emergency department opened in March 2020 as part of phase one of the campus modernization project.
Photo credit: Mark Ballogg ©balloggphoto.com.
