Patient Safety Top of Mind for Medical Center and Design Team

By Julie Stromberg RN, MS, CEN, and Linda Mahle, AIA

Originally published in Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare July/August Issue

Health providers, architects, and planners collaborated to put patient safety at the heart of the relocation and expansion of a leading Northern California trauma center/emergency department. In numerous ways, facility design contributes to the prompt, safe diagnosis and treatment of approximately 50,000 patients each year at John Muir Medical Center-Walnut Creek. From overarching organizational concepts to individual room amenities, design decisions were based on the goal of providing the most efficient, comfortable, and safe treatment for each patient.

Project Overview

Photo Courtesy of Douglas A. Salin

The first three (of four) phases of the relocation and expansion project provided a new 24,000-square-foot emergency department, which doubled the size of the previous emergency department. When the final phase of work is complete, the department will be approximately three times its original size. The number of waiting areas was also increased from the traditional single main waiting room, to a main lobby and three satellite waiting rooms to accommodate patients’ loved ones. Together, the first three phases comprised:

• 32 treatment spaces
• Four major trauma rooms, three cardiac/critical care rooms
• Dedicated CT scanner and two radiology suites
• A negative pressure room used for suspected infectious diseases
• Two full isolation treatment rooms complete with anterooms
• A mass decontamination area to treat victims of a mass chemical or bioterrorist exposure

The emergency department expansion and remodel was completed in a phased approach to allow for early relocation of the ED to accommodate the start of construction for a new five-story, 400,000-square-foot patient care tower, which is partially located in the old ED’s footprint. A future phase in the hospital expansion project will add 12 more ED treatment/observation rooms, relocate the heli-stop to the new tower’s rooftop, and connect the helipad to the ED via two dedicated, high-speed elevators.

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