New Campus Development
By Stan Shelton

Following Teri’s May 12 announcement that the Foundation, Medical Staff and Board of Directors had all approved our plans to relocate to the Briarwood property, we immediately began the construction phase of the project.  Our structural steel has been ordered and about 85% of the construction zone has been cleared.  The construction crew is beginning to dig the new drainage features and starting to get the building pad to the proper elevation – it’s very exciting to see physical progress resulting from the thoughtful work of so many of you. 

With that excitement also comes a healthy dose of anxiety.  I’d be surprised if there is anyone in the Woman’s Hospital family who hasn’t wondered how we’re going to pay for it; whether it’s the right thing to do; and of course, how you are going to be personally affected by all of this (those questions have kept me awake many nights).

I’ll deal with the last of those wonderings first.  Many years ago while working in Human Resources, I realized that at some point, it’s impossible for a person, staff employee or CEO alike, to not be concerned about his or her own well being.  In fact, I believe that our concern for ourselves is merely one of the traits we all share as people.  So it’s perfectly natural to wonder, even to worry, about what our new hospital will mean to each of us personally – will it mean a shorter or longer commute, a better or worse parking space, a private office or a shared work area, fewer or more steps in your day, or some other good or bad personal outcome.   

I can’t answer those kinds of questions for anyone in the article, though I’m happy to talk with you personally about what we’re planning and how it may impact you.  What I can answer here is whether our new hospital is the right thing to do – it absolutely is the right thing to do for our patients and for our future.   

During the useful life of our new hospital, over 300,000 babies will be born in that facility, and tens of thousands of families will be touched by the care you and your future colleagues will provide.  I’ve come to understand that we’re not building “just another building,” we’re creating a landmark for some of the most important events in people’s lives, and the landmark that many of you have helped to design is patient-centered and unlike anything else that exists on the planet.  What we’re building will be spectacular, and it’s exactly what our patients deserve. 

 Here are just a few of the many improvements for our patients:

• Direct access to Assessment Center from dedicated parking and entrance (and it’ll have its own waiting area)

• Large, universally-sized patient rooms so we never have to move a patient from a larger room to a smaller one

• Views of nature from most of our patient rooms

• A large obstetric post-op area which will allow moms and babies to stay together for recovery after C-Sections and tubal ligations  (we now have to care for them separately)

• Single-family rooms rather than ward care in our NICU

• Nurseries connected to each Mother/Baby unit

• A comprehensive breast center so patients can access everything they need in one location

Now let’s talk about how we’re going to pay for it.  I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t say that our new house payment will be more of a challenge than our current one.  This project will require that we use about $50 million of our savings and that we take on an additional $245 million in debt (we’ll also pay for some of the project expenses through our regular operations.  We will pay back that debt over 35 years by actively and wisely managing the business side of our operations.  We’ll continue to focus on performance improvement and operational efficiency, and we’ll take advantage of opportunities to provide new services (just like we’ve done recently with bariatric and robotic surgeries as well as GI services).

So for right now, no one can say exactly what all this will mean for you or your work in the future, but I can say in general terms that we will all be doing some things differently, and we’ll do some new things – it will mean change, and that doesn’t come naturally to most of us.  So as we plan for and move into our future, do pay attention to what it means for you personally and please do express any concerns you may have.  If we can help to resolve your issues, we will; if we can’t, we’ll tell you so and we’ll explain the reasons.  Most importantly though, don’t get stuck on your personal issues – at some point, and hopefully sooner rather than later, seek to understand how whatever is happening can be used to improve the care and experience for our patients and their families, and remember that just as our new campus will be their landmark, you will be their guide.

Open-Office Design
We will be moving to an open-office design in the administrative-type areas in our new facilities.  This will encourage collaboration, and it will conserve space.  To date, we’ve had only general ideas about how we’ll make that transition and how the new spaces will be designed.  We’ve recently hired Steelcase to help us with the design of and transition to that concept.  In mid-July, Steelcase will facilitate a process with 25 or so of our staff to begin this design process.  By the end of August, we should have a firm plan regarding what our new office space concepts will be and how we will transition to them.  Once that is done, we’ll get back with the individual departments to precisely design the administrative work areas for each of them.  We’ll keep you posted with our progress along the way.

Pick the Brick
We’ve finally received our red brick samples and will very shortly be replacing some of the panels in the plaza.  Ultimately, we want your opinion about the new samples compared to samples #4 and #2, the top two from the previous selections.  As soon as they are up and numbered, I’ll send out an email to let you know it’s time for your brick feedback.

Information Wall
You have probably noticed our “information walls” near the conference rooms on the first floor of the hospital and in the lobby of the Tower.  Over the life of our construction project, we’ll update those walls at least monthly and use them to highlight particular aspects of the project.  If there’s something you’d like to see in a future wall, please let me or Roxanne Butler know.

8-Week Look Ahead

• Begin design process for our conversion to an open-office environment
• Continue site excavation work
• Finalize exterior design (brick and glass selections)
• Finalize agreement with City/Parish regarding Stumberg Lane
• Move into next phase of the design work for the medical office buildings
• Continue to make revisions to our plans in order to keep the project comfortably within budget
• Finalize concepts for overall campus master plan
• Continue Construction Document Phase of the project