Published: December 15, 2008 11:18 pm         

Renovations and innovations: More than $7.23M of Union Hospital project’s $8M goal already raised

Construction of Union Hospital’s new 500,000-square-foot hospital is nearly 80 percent complete on its exterior and about 30 percent complete on its interior, staying on schedule to open to patients in January 2010.

The hospital is a part of a $185 million expansion/renovation project, which includes renovation of the hospital’s existing west building. When the entire project is complete by 2012, the hospital will have 380 private rooms.

Some innovations are being built into the new building, such as the use of a cross-linked polyethylene plastic hot- and cold-water distribution system, called PEX, or plastic water piping. Instead of requiring a 90-degree turn for pipes using U joints to turn a corner, flexible plastic tubing can easily be pushed through small holes, curving through corners.

“It will save about a quarter of a million dollars in labor and in maintenance,” said Kym Pfrank, vice president and chief information officer at Union Hospital, during a hard-hat tour of the new facility at Seventh Street and Eighth Avenue on Monday.

“It has recently been approved for use in hospitals,” Pfrank said. Blue tubing is for cold water, with red tubing for hot water.

In addition, badges will be used to record when a nurse or doctor sees a patient, automatically recording the date and time spent with each patient.

“Each staff person, when they walk into a room they will have a RFID tag, a radio frequency identification, by their badge, so when they walk in the room it automatically logs you in as being in to see the patient and also signs you in onto all the computers, so you don’t have to spend time doing a sign-on,” Pfrank said.

“It helps with documentation. Many times, patients will come back and say they have not seen a nurse, so this documents that for reporting purposes, instead of a nurse having to write down they had been in to see a patient,” Pfrank said.

Private rooms are located along the outside walls of the new hospital, while nurse stations and staff will be located in interior rooms, “so you don’t have the staff using the corridors for noise and travel. They can travel up and down out of the center, so it cuts down on the noise and traffic. The idea is to make it more quiet for patients,” Pfrank said.

The main entrance atrium to the hospital will have a large glass wall, allowing light to go into interior patient windows, plus allow natural light to go into the hospital’s cafeteria, removing a feeling of being in a cave, Pfrank said. The cafeteria also includes an area that is part of the front atrium. Pumps will keep the lower levels dry during heavy rains, he said.

The new hospital will have 13 elevators, compared with four elevators in its existing west building. Of the 13, four are for staff and four are for visitors, with other elevators for surgery and freight use, Pfrank said.

The hospital has undertaken a fundraising campaign to pay for the project, called Distinctive Past, Exceptional Future Capital Campaign. Jerry Einstandig, chairman of that campaign, said Monday the campaign has raised more than $7.23 million, or 90 percent of its $8 million goal.

“We hope to reach or exceed our goal in the early part of the new year,” he said.

Part of the fundraising included more than $3.7 million raised from the Union Hospital Board, Union Hospital Foundation Board and VNA Hospice Board, along with business, individuals and foundations. That figure includes $1.25 million from two anonymous gifts, Einstandig said.

“In this extraordinary demonstration of support, the anonymous donors have helped the foundation in its quest to assist Union Hospital with its mission to serve its patients with compassionate health care of the highest quality,” Einstandig said.

One of the donors asked that their contribution be used for renovations in the neonatal intensive-care unit and maternal and child services departments, he said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com