A window into tomorrow’s hospital

Photo/Paula Illingworth By Lisa Lopez Snyder Contributing Writer A gleaming hurricane-proof tower rises in Charleston. A children’s hospital focused on one-stop family care emerges in Columbia. These aren’t the hospitals of tomorrow, but a slice of what’s happening in South Carolina right now. In February, the Medical University of South Carolina opened Ashley River Tower, a 641,000-square-foot 156-bed facility aimed at providing state-of-the-art cardiovascular and digestive disease care — both inpatient and outpatient. The new hospital’s design has an almost hotel-like feel — structured entirely around the patient experience — from the natural light filtering through the glass wall panels to the private rooms with family day space to the wireless Internet access, to name a few features. The $275 million facility includes three interconnected buildings: a four-story diagnosis and treatment facility, a seven-story patient hospitality tower for recovery and an atrium for patients, families and employees. Physicians also have an immediate connectedness at every point of clinical care. Surgeons can view surgical images on flat-screen monitors, and information on a patient’s electronic medical record — lab results, scanned images — can be immediately projected on a monitor in the operating room.  “The design is much more efficient for patients and doctors,” said Raymond Greenberg, MUSC president. “It’s one-stop shopping for patients, and doctors can have their work done in one environment.” Ashley River Tower addresses two key issues the hospital faced in recent years, he said: the increase in cardiovascular and digestive diseases and the need to serve a growing aging population. Just as important, Greenberg said, the design allows for future changes in heath care delivery. If the trends move away from hospitalization or outpatient care, he said, the design of the hospital can accommodate that. “I believe we’re on the cusp of transforming the way health care is delivered.” Palmetto Health is positioned for a facelift of its own. The health system is transforming the South Carolina Cancer Center building in its medical park complex in Columbia into a 150,000-square-foot, six-story Children’s Hospital. The goal? To provide children and their families all the support services related to children’s needs in one place. The hospital will feature inpatient and day hospital care, a concept that is the first of its kind in South Carolina for children’s care, said Charles Beaman, Palmetto Health CEO. The day hospital will be available for children who need additional therapy beyond the scope of an office visit, but who don’t require an emergency room visit or hospital stay. “The whole design of the facility is (structured) not only around the children, but around their families,” Beaman said. Parents will have the option to stay overnight in rooms with comfortable beds, showers and other personal amenities. Comforting and healing services include music therapy and other play therapy. The hospital will also include family waiting areas. The $20 million renovation is positioning Palmetto Health for the future of children’s health care. “Being in the Midlands, and in close association with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine department of pediatrics, with the range of services that are available here, we believe this children’s hospital will be attractive to any parent that has a child with a disorder needing medical care,” Beaman said. The hospital will include under one roof the neonatal intensive care unit, a children’s emergency center, a 24-hour pediatric intensive care unit and 32 pediatric subspecialists. The only services that would require referring out to another specialty hospital would be for burns, pediatric cardiac surgery and organ transplants. “Having that all within the confines of the children’s hospital makes it unique in that the child won’t have to leave that structure to receive medical services,” Beaman said. The hospital is scheduled to open in May.