Photograph by Jonathan Pollock
This March, the staff of St. Joseph Hospital left the 54-year-old Kirkwood facility and moved to the newly constructed SSM St. Clare Health Center in Fenton. At first, some doctors were wary.
“Several physicians were concerned that we would lose St. Joseph’s warm, fuzzy environment in the transition,” recalls Dr. Tim Pratt, the hospital’s vice-president of medical affairs. “But because St. Clare was designed for the patient, the patient’s attention and care was at the center of the design.”
The concept entered development four years ago, when SSM purchased an expansive swath of land in St. Louis County that was once a nine-hole golf course. “We went from being located in an old neighborhood with limited space for expansion to a campus that allowed us to build a larger hospital,” says SSM St. Clare president Sherry Hausmann. With so many acres, architects and builders designed a facility with several decentralized entry points, allowing patients to park close to their destinations.
Tales of roommate frustration cease to exist at the new center, because the hospital provides private quarters, including in-room accommodations for family members. “The room design allows the patient’s family to take part in the healing process,” says Hausmann. “I have received letter after letter commenting on this nurturing environment.”
Efficiency was also important. Nurses are stationed directly outside patients’ rooms, rather than in a single, central location. “There is no nursing station, which forces nurses not to congregate in one area,” says Hausmann. “Nurses spend much more time in patients’ rooms, which increases nurse-patient time.” Patients admitted to the ICU also reside in the same room until discharge, helping them get to know the staff.
Medication prescribed to hospitalized patients is safely stored in their rooms, improving reliability and accuracy—and putting less strain on nurses’ feet. “We probably eliminated about 3 to 4 miles of walking per nursing shift,” says Mary Brobst, executive director of nursing. MedProx, a medication system with automated dispensing cabinets and storage, helps deliver the medication; St. Clare is the nation’s first hospital to use the high-tech system. “This decreases delays, mistakes, and distractions,” says Brobst.
Dr. Seiichi Noda, a heart surgeon, sees the new facility as a significant improvement: “It’s an absolutely beautiful hospital that has exceeded the vast majority of doctors’ expectations.”
