Contact: Ellen Bank
843.792.2626
April 7, 2005
CHARLESTON -- Ceremonies to mark the beginning of construction
of the new Medical University of South Carolina Hospital will be held at 11:30,
April 8 at the construction site on Courtenay Drive.
Special guest at ceremony will be Roy A. Bernardi, deputy secretary of the Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). "HUD is proud to help the Medical
University of South Carolina to continue growing into the state-of-the-art medical
campus it is today," said Bernardi. "This is the second largest loan
commitment HUD has ever made. By insuring this $400 million mortgage, we expect
to save the University, and South Carolina taxpayers, approximately $110 million."
The complex will dramatically change the landscape of the lower, western edge
of the Charleston peninsula and ultimately replace the Ashley Avenue facility
which has served for 50 years as the teaching hospital for MUSC.
“We expended a great amount of effort to find out what will fulfill the
needs of the 21st century hospital patient,” said John Heffner, M.D.,
medical director. “The hospital was designed around the patient and the
community. The design not only reflects the modern futuristic aspects of health
care, but echoes the style and tradition that makes Charleston unique.”
The facility will be built so that the patient is at the center of care. During
the planning phases, lay groups and frontline care givers, like nursing groups,
spent much time talking with administrators to help identify the best configuration
of the hospital interior.
The first stage of the hospital is designed to serve patients with cardiovascular
or gastrointestinal problems. As other phases of the hospital are added, other
services will be provided, but everything is planned in advance so that when
new stages are added on, they won’t look or function like an afterthought.
The specialty concentration makes for great efficiency, according to Fred Crawford,
M.D., chairman of the Department of Surgery. “If you are referred here
with a heart problem, you will find everything necessary to get you seen, promptly
diagnosed, and appropriately treated in the best possible way, all in a relatively
small space. You won’t have to go to six or eight different locations.
This has been a dream of mine for years; to build a new hospital related to
a single disease entity and see how efficient we can make it, and see how much
better we can make it for our patients.”
What excites Crawford the most is the planned operating rooms in the new hospital,
which he describes as truly futuristic.
During surgery, physicians will only have to press a button to retrieve information
they need to treat the patient. Anything that is on the patient’s electronic
record, whether it be an image from a catheterization, lab values or an echocardiogram,
can instantaneously be brought up on a monitor in the operating room. Crawford
explained that currently, for example, an anesthesiologist who needs a lab value
during surgery, asks the circulating nurse to call down to the lab. The person
in the lab reads the values, and the nurse writes them down, giving the paper
to the anesthesiologist who writes down the values in a different place. In
the new hospital, the anesthesiologist will press a button, and the lab values
immediately will come up on a monitor in the operating room.
The new MUSC hospital will be one of the first in the nation to have this capability
in the operating room.
Conversely, physicians in the operating room can be immediately available to
patients in any other area of the hospital. If an ICU nurse sees that a patient
is in trouble, and needs the patient’s surgeon through a camera in the
room the nurse can send an image of the patient directly to the operating room.
The physician can access any information needed about the patient, thus helping
the second patient without leaving the operating room.
Crawford said the technology is so advanced that prior to opening the new hospital,
staff will train in the old hospital rooms outfitted with the new technology
before the move to the new facility.
The technology is part of a system known as the advanced point of care clinical
system, according to Frank Clark, Ph.D., vice president for information technology.
The system captures all salient patient information electronically, and is available
to all staff with authorization to the patient’s record. Every encounter
that a health care professional has with the patient is documented electronically,
as well as all lab tests and diagnostic images.
The electronic system eliminates errors, according to Clark. For example, when
a physician orders medication, the doctor keys the prescriptions into the electronic
system rather than writing a paper prescription. This immediately eliminates
the possibility of errors from handwriting. As soon as the physician puts the
prescription into the system, which holds a vast array of clinical information
about the patient, the system automatically alerts the physician if there is
any possibility of an adverse reaction to the drug being prescribed. When the
pharmacist receives the electronically-generated prescription, there is a second
check. The pharmacist has the patient’s total electronic record, and reviews
the appropriateness of the prescription, given the patient data.
After the pharmacist fills the prescription, the pharmacist puts a bar code
on the prescription, indicating the medication and the name of patient for whom
it is prescribed. A third safety check comes into play prior to the nurse administering
the medication. The nurse scans the patient’s wristband, the medication,
and the nurse's badge with a wand. This ensures that the right medication is
given to the right patient. “And all this is accomplished with a wireless
system,” said Clark.
The new hospital is also being built with the idea that everything put in the
hospital will become obsolete fairly quickly. “Even with the best planning
in the world, we don’t know what the future will bring,” said Crawford.
“We don’t know whether minimally invasive techniques will replace
more invasive procedures. What a cath lab is today might need to be used to
house a CT scanner tomorrow. The hospital is being built so things can be moved
around very flexibly without disrupting the rest of the hospital. We are minimizing
the problems of future renovation to accommodate future technology by building
flexibility in from the outset.”
But efficiency and technology are just a part of the new facility. Featuring
a lot of light and windows, the building will be aesthetically pleasing. “We
believe that the healing environment is very important in having patients recover
from their illness,” said Heffner. “We spent a lot of time looking
at color schemes and environment, creating an ambiance where our patients will
be comfortable.”
Much thought has been given to the configuration of the hospital interior. For
example, the layout of floors will limit the transportation of patients on gurneys
and wheelchairs through public areas. Family waiting rooms will be close to
the areas of care. In addition, patient rooms will be spacious and are designed
to accommodate special needs of families and visitors.
Heffner said the hospital was designed with sensitivity to the Charleston style of living. “We like to think of the new hospital as one of the jewels in Charleston’s crown,” he said. “When visitors come to Charleston, it will be one of the landmark features. Just like the new bridge will be a landmark on the east side of town, our hospital will be a landmark on the west side.”
The first phase of the new MUSC hospital complex will include a 641,000 square-foot
building to accommodate cardiovascular and digestive disease services. This
phase will contain 156 beds, including 32 ICU beds, nine operating rooms, catheterization
laboratories, interventional radiology laboratories, endoscopy suites, imaging
suites, a specialized chest pain center and out patient clinic space. Total
cost of the facility, including all construction, fees, and financing charges,
is approximately $275.8 million.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has insured $401 million
in bonds to finance the hospital project. This figure insures both bonds for
the new construction project and re-funding of existing debts. The consolidation
of these debts is a requirement for the new funding.
Additionally, the South Carolina Jobs and Economic Development Authority has
provided support in the issuance of $61 million in bonds towards the construction
of a 52,000 square foot central energy plant and infrastructure for the new
hospital complex.
The design team for the project is an association of NBBJ and LS3P Associates of Charleston, and the construction manager is BGKS, a joint venture among Brasfield & Gorrie, MB Kahn Construction and Southern Management Group. The contract call for construction of the first phase to be completed by January 2008.
#####