The new Golisano Children’s Hospital, dedicated to making patients and their families comfortable, will be added to Strong Memorial Hospital come 2015.
This new addition to the hospital will cost approximately $145 million, a portion of which came from the funding of the Rochester community. The hospital will be 245,000 square feet.
Assistant Director for Public Relations and Communications Heather Hare said that Strong Hospital is recognizing the ever-changing ways of medicine through innovation and new accommodations for patients. “Medicine itself and the way we value parents and their role on the care team has changed a lot,” Hare said.
The hospital will be a tower including eight floors. As the design recognizes the important role parents play in their children’s time at Strong, two floors will be set aside for private rooms. These new rooms will be more spacious – in each room, there is space for two parents to stay with their child. The rooms will allow for maximum privacy and infection control, and make it easier for the parents to take care of themselves by giving them access to everyday necessities such as a good night’s sleep and laundry machines.
When Strong asked the parents of patients what they would like to see in the new addition to the hospital, a common theme was allowing their children to have a space of their own. Therefore, each room will include more storage as well as a shelf above the child’s bed. According to Hare, semi-private rooms made it difficult for kids to feel comfortable during their time at Strong – there was little storage, and they had little opportunity to make the room they were staying in feel like home.
The new Golisano Children’s Hospital emphasizes an optimistic mood, with colorful hallways and private rooms that enable the patients to add their own unique touch to their space.
Each section of the new children’s hospital will be connected with the corresponding section of the medical center. Hare commented on this relationship. “We are not a stand-alone children’s hospital,” she said.
This connection to the main hospital means more resources for less money and easy access to the rest of Strong. The connection also allows for more specialized treatments for patients and faster transportation time. In addition, the nurses are always accessible and never more than a few steps away.
The new hospital will also include developments in the technology of hospitalization. Golisano’s will be introducing a new smart phone program called Safety Network. The program gives nurses smart phones specialized to stay connected with each other as well as patients, making communication throughout the hospital faster and easier. These smartphones will be connected to the patients’ monitors to keep nurses informed at all times. Charts and data will be accessible on the smartphones; – if something were to go wrong, the nurses would be informed immediately. On Oct. 18, a gala will be held to raise funds for the implementation of this technology.and share it with others.”
Konzel is a member of
the class of 2017.
