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LEWISBURG -- The four-years-long renovation project, PRIME, Patient Room Improvement, Modernization and Enhancement is at its end this month at Evangelical Community Hospital.
The project, which originally broke ground for phase one in 2018, includes newly renovated private patient rooms that are more spacious than the previous rooms, and also provide private bathrooms for patients and easier accessibility for nurses and doctors.
According to Stacie T. Gaul, associate vice president of capital planning, projects and facilities, the new rooms are not only more spacious, they have amenities and features that assist staff with infection prevention and control.
Additionally, technology has been updated within clinical communications; nurses can receive alerts from patients directly to their smart phone through an app, which will not only reduce noise but also help with quicker and more efficient responses to patients.
The private rooms also allow doctors, nurses and patients to have private conversations about the patient's health.
Previously, the hospital had a majority of "semi-private" rooms which had many challenges including patients having to share rooms and bathrooms.
"Patients and families are able to be more comfortable in the (private) patient rooms," Gaul said. "It helps with staffing, gives them better and more efficient amenities to work with. We have had great feedback."
A cafe and gift shop also were added on the first floor in phase one of the project.
This part of the project was able to be occupied when it was finished in October of 2020.
The second phase of the project, which broke ground on Oct. 22 of 2020, includes 12 additional spacious patient rooms in the new Critical Care Unit, formerly known as the Intermediate Care Unit. It is connected to the existing phase one of the project and visitors enter through the new main entrance.
The new rooms in the CCU also have larger windows and are "designed to give patients a room that feels like home" according to Deanna L. Hollenbach, public relations and communications manager.
Gaul said that the new rooms are approximately 360 square feet, not only being beneficial for the experience of the patient, but also efficient and safe for nurses and doctors to move equipment in and out of rooms, helping with infection control and more.
In addition to that, there are also 10 rooms in the Critical Care Unit that are able to be utilized as "negative pressure airborne isolation rooms" which are great in cases of COVID but also any other contagions or highly contagious illnesses like the annual flu.
"Adding airborne isolation rooms gives us the flexibility for whatever may come down the road," Gaul said. "It will help us in the future and give us the ability to manage what we can't predict. We think about that more today than prior to the pandemic."
Gaul added that in the original design, there was only a plan for 11 negative pressure rooms in both phase one and two of the project, but Evangelical decided to increase that number due to the pandemic. There are a total of 28 negative pressure rooms altogether in the new addition and renovated unit, with a total of 131 licensed beds hospital-wide.
"We are looking forward to wrapping up the PRIME project…we are excited to see that come to fruition," Gaul said. "Nobody looks forward to a hospital stay, we want to make it the best experience possible."
Evangelical didn't stop there. They also wrapped up an MRI replacement project, bidding farewell to a 20-year-old machine.
"The staff was great to work with throughout the process, having a new unit in place to work with updated technology that has some neat features," Gaul said.
The new machine has artificial intelligence that can perform precise scans and detect the location of previous scans rather than having to manually find the exact place.
It also allows physicians to view images over a period of time to do comparisons and has a much larger opening, which will be better for the patient experience.
"We are happy to be able to do this and to continue to invest in the community and organization and look forward to doing that for many years to come," Gaul said.
For more information, visit www.evanhospital.com.