Sacred Heart announces expansion
Sacred Heart Hospital has announced plans for a major expansion that will include a new five-story tower containing 112 private patient rooms. The tower will be constructed on top of the hospital’s existing Heart and Vascular Institute building.
The vertical expansion on Sacred Heart’s campus at Ninth Avenue and Bayou Boulevard will take place over a four-year period. Construction will begin in the spring of next year, with the first 68 beds becoming operational in 2014. Another 44 beds will be added in 2015-16.
“This expansion will bring more than 150 new healthcare jobs to our community and the additional private-room capacity we need in order to accommodate the demand for healthcare services in the decade ahead,” said Laura S. Kaiser, President and CEO of Sacred Heart Health System. “We have pressing needs right now for additional beds, especially for critically-ill patients and other adult patients with acute-care needs.”
An additional job-creation benefit for the local economy will be the project’s use of area construction contractors and design companies.
After months of study and planning, leaders at Sacred Heart and its parent healthcare system, Ascension Health, approved the $57 million expansion based on multiple factors:
The aging of the “baby boom generation” will mean a large increase in the numbers of people reaching 65 and older who will need more healthcare services.
The anticipated growth of Northwest Florida’s population in all demographic groups.
The need for more beds for critically ill patients – a need driven in part by the hospital’s status as a regional Trauma Center and a regional Stroke Center. Of the 112 beds in the new tower, 40 will be for critically ill patients.
While Sacred Heart has greatly expanded its outpatient facilities over the past 15 years and added a Women’s and Children’s Hospital in 1996, its main, five-story hospital for adult patients has not been expanded for almost 30 years.
In addition to the five-story addition, the expansion plan also calls for more parking spaces and replacement of key systems such as heating and air conditioning that support the hospital plant operations.
“The construction of the new tower and patient-care facilities is exciting news for our patients, our physicians and associates, and for the local economy,” Kaiser said. “The new facilities and the talent they will attract will improve healthcare and add to Pensacola’s status as the healthcare center for all of Northwest Florida.”
Part of the expansion was the $4.7-million renovation project that opened on July 6 with the addition of a new 12 room adult critical care unit.
With this expansion the hospital has hired 29 critical-care nurses and continues to recruit for additional positions to staff the unit, which is adjacent to the hospital’s operating rooms and will be used primarily for surgical patients.
“Our critical-care patient volume has increased so much that the need often exceeds our capacity,” says Deanie Lancaster, SHHP Chief Nursing Officer. The 12 new rooms expand the hospital’s critical-capacity to 40 ACCU beds.
“In designing the new rooms, we wanted to maximize the staff’s ability to visualize the patients and to create optimum accessibility of needed equipment and resources,” says Ginger Hawkins, Executive Director of Critical Care Nursing at SHHP.
This expansion was critical according to Burke as Sacred Heart Hosptial is just one of two trauma emergency units in Northwest Flroida to serve the citizens in Santa Rosa and Escambia County.
To help provide visibility of critically ill patients on the U-shaped unit, closed-circuit video cameras in each room transmit real-time views of the patients to large monitors at the nursing station and substations. Abundant glass interior walls in each room allow physicians and staff to see the patients from adjacent workstations. Large digital clocks on the wall in each room are synchronized within the unit and are highly visible to physicians and staff who must document accurate timing of patients' treatment. Workrooms between the two hallways were designed with glass windows on the doors to allow staff to see through from one hallway to the other.
The Surgical Intensive Care rooms are also pleasing to the eye – generously-sized and comfortably appointed with recliners and flatscreen TVs. Large exterior windows fill the rooms with natural light – many offering beautiful, serene views of the Meditation Garden below.
Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola’s award-winning critical-care team is ranked among the top 10 percent in the nation in 2011 for critical care by HealthGrades®, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization.
