Wednesday, March 16, 2016
A $23 million dollar expansion project of Waupun Memorial Hospital to develop new private patient rooms will start next month.
The project involves constructing a two-story, 52,775-square-foot addition on the north side of the hospital, facing Main Street. The first floor will be utilized for some support services, like the loading dock and access to the helipad, while the second floor will feature patient services.
When completed, the new building will feature 21 inpatient rooms, including 15 medical or surgical rooms, three intensive care unit rooms and three labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms. A rehab gym will be built in the surgical and medical area so the services will be more accessible while individuals stay in the hospital for care.
New technology will be installed in the rooms for the convenience of both the caregivers and the patients. A 42-inch interactive television will be in each room for patients to view materials, access the Internet, play games and watch television. Healthcare professionals will be identified when entering a room using new name badge technology that displays the professional's name and title on the television.
In addition, the hospital beds are wired for access to computers and medical records, now a state-of-the-art computer system linked to the nurse call center and phone system for two-way communication. "(The new technology) just brings the capabilities for us to move into the future," said DeAnn Thurmer, the chief operating officer of Waupun Memorial Hospital.
The new rooms also will be more spacious, with wider doors for wheelchair accessibility and an overhead lift to use when moving patients around the room. The new labor and delivery rooms will allow ample family space adjacent to the patient bed.
"We want the patient and family to be as comfortable as possible," Jill Wenzel, the director of Inpatient Services at Waupun Memorial Hospital, said in a release. "Our goal is to keep the family at the bedside as much as they'd like. They're there to spend time with their loved one, not to spend time in a waiting room."
Convenience is important to patients and their families, and Agnesian is responding to that with the expansion.
"We know that people appreciate being able to get as many healthcare services in their hometown as possible," said Shelly Haberman, the public relations supervisor for Agnesian HealthCare. "We know from a healing perspective that people have a better recovery time if they can be close to family and friends, and I think also what this new addition is going to do for us is continue our goal of creating healing spaces."
The cost of the addition will be covered by Agnesian's capital improvement budgeting initiative. This project is part of the Agnesian Master Facility, a plan created in 2007.
"Often times when we have construction projects like this, I think people's perception is 'Well, now our healthcare costs are going to go up,' and we really introduced projects like Waupun from a long-term planning strategy so that we can appropriately fund that without our patients having to absorb that cost," Haberman said.
The first private rooms should be available to patients in fall 2017.
Source : fdlreporter.com
