SEATTLE — Seattle Children’s Hospital announced the opening of its newly renovated dialysis unit. The unit will significantly improve patient comfort and safety compared to its predecessor facility, and includes an additional 630-square-feet of space for a total of nearly 2,400-square-feet. The project team included Sellen Construction and ZGF Architects.Children’s conducted focus groups with dialysis patient families to gather input on the design of the new unit. Design elements used in dialysis units of other leading hospitals were also incorporated into the space. In addition, during the planning process Children’s facilities team created a life-size mock-up of the unit to allow the clinical team to provide design feedback.
Key improvements include:
• The addition of two dialysis chairs to support treatment of up to 14 patients a day. This is a 40 percent increase from the previous ten patients a day maximum. The unit now houses a total of seven chairs.
• A central nurses’ station allowing nurses to easily see all patients during treatment. This visual element is critical, and allows for close supervision and quicker response times during treatment.
• New reverse osmosis (RO) system to create medical-grade water. The pure water this system produces is essential to providing safe dialysis. The new RO replaces an older system.
• More storage space for patients. New space includes a unique storage unit that will permit each patient to keep games, toys and other personal belongings in his or her own bin, helping to create a more familiar and comfortable environment.
• The use of mobile carts between patient stations. Mobile carts are used in lieu of fixed cabinets, providing for greater flexibility and more effective use of space.
• Enhanced privacy features including opaque art glass that separates the family waiting area from the rest of the unit.
• New flooring designed to absorb sound and to provide a more comfortable working surface for staff.
• Televisions with DVD players mounted on mechanical arms that allow screens to be positioned close to the patient for more comfortable viewing.
During construction of the new space, a separate interim dialysis clinic was constructed so patients could continue to receive uninterrupted on-site treatment.
“The development of our new dialysis unit was highly strategic, incorporating many continuous performance improvement (CPI) principles including the process of actively engaging our staff and patient families to partake in making design decisions,” says Joseph Flynn, MD, MS, Medical Director of Dialysis Services at Seattle Children’s. “This collaborative approach helped us build the most state-of-the art pediatric dialysis unit in Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.”
About Seattle Children’s Hospital:
Consistently ranked as one of the best children’s hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Children’s serves as the pediatric and adolescent academic medical referral center for the largest landmass of any children’s hospital in the country (Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho). For more than 100 years, Children’s has been delivering superior patient care and advancing new treatments through pediatric research. Children’s serves as the primary teaching, clinical and research site for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The hospital works in partnership with Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation. Together they are Seattle Children’s, known for setting new standards in superior patient care for more than 100 years. For more information visit http://www.seattlechildrens.org.
