Almost 200 employees, administrators, donors and community members crowded into the hall of University Hospital's Eccles Critical Care Pavilion on Tuesday to witness a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first completed project in the hospital's $130 million expansion plan.

"We are setting a new standard," said Chrissy Daniels, project manager of the upgraded critical-care facility.

Two floors were added to the critical-care center as part of phase one of the expansion project. The first phase also includes the addition of three floors to the hospital's helipad parking terrace, which sits adjacent to the Eccles pavilion. The parking structure is expected to be completed in a few months.

The second phase, currently under way, is the construction of a new five-story, 221,329-square-foot Patient Care Pavilion, which will mirror the Eccles facility to the east. It is scheduled for completion in summer 2009.

The additions will increase the number of private rooms in the hospital, make access easier for patients and visitors, create a new lobby and completely change the face of the hospital.

Daniels said administrators went to the families, patients, doctors and nurses for input before designing the rooms and nursing stations for the new floors of the critical-care center. The design of the halls, the function of the rooms and the flexibility of the nursing stations are a direct result of the input received, she said.

"This was designed by our front-line staff," said Margaret Pierce, chief nursing officer. "We have the best staff in the world. We would be foolish not to tap into their experience." The critical care building will welcome its first patients within four weeks and be fully functional in the next few months.

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