University hospital launches expansion

Remarks during the groundbreaking for expansion of University Hospital were interrupted by AirMed helicopters heading to an emergency Tuesday morning.

It was a fitting pause to dedicate what interim chief executive officer Gordon Crabtree called a "place of relief and healing."

The $120 million project, scheduled for completion in 2009, adds 280,000 square feet of clinical space and remodels much of the existing hospital, which will remain open while the work is done. Two floors are being added to the fairly new Critical Care Pavilion, new floors will top the east parking plaza and raise the helipads, and the lobby and front entrance are being pushed out into what is currently the circle in front of the hospital.

That lobby will serve as a central location for services scattered throughout the existing hospital, including admitting, pharmacy, lab for blood draws, interpreter services and an information center. The hospital plans to ease the burden of growing pains by expanding its free valet-parking services during the construction, says Christopher Nelson, a hospital spokesman.

The number of patient rooms will increase, but the number of beds will stay relatively stable, since the hospital is moving from a semi-private model to private rooms. Still, 118 new rooms will be added as floors in the main existing hospital are built out. Two of the floors will be "shelled in" to allow further future expansion.

Intermediate-care beds are moving from the main hospital section to the critical-care pavilion. The burn intensive-care unit and the just-renovated medical/coronary intensive care will stay where they are.

Chief nursing officer Margaret Pearce said one of the most important aspects of designing the new areas was that the teams included doctors, nurses and others who know from a patient and provider side what works and what doesn't.

To celebrate the staff that cares for patients, 100 of the hospital's 7,000-plus employees were selected to help break ground on the addition, donning plastic Layton Construction hard hats and grabbing shovels.

"We've resorted to manual labor. The price of fuel is just too high," quipped Crabtree, adding that the staffers would dig the addition's foundation themselves.

The expanded facility will allow the U. to make good on its "triple mission" of providing clinical care, research and education, said Dr. A. Lorris Betz, U. senior vice president for health sciences.

Architectural Nexus designed the expansion.

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