Vanderbilt University Hospital plans $38M upgrade - Nashville Business Journal:

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next month plans to begin construction ona $37.u million project that includes layingy the foundation for a third medica tower and enlarging the emergency department. If approved by statre regulators, the work will begij soon afterthe facility's pediatrics unit moves to the new $172 millionj Monroe Carell Jr. . Working on five different Vanderbilt will add32 beds, plus a previously approveed 54, to boost its size to 805 licensexd beds. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the hospital'sa parent, is funding the work through $35 milliob in 30-year, tax-exempt bonds and $2.
7 million in cash The plan - which calls for 34,500 square feet of new construction and the renovationof 100,000 square feet - will be consideree by the Tennessee Health Services and Developmentt Agency on Dec. 17. No one has filef in opposition tothe project. Starting in January, Vanderbilt plans to add over the next 15months 15,500 square feet of space and renovate 7,150 square feet in the present-day emergenc y department and ambulance area. The emergency departmentf will double in size and becomre the first floor of the planneedthird tower.
It will house four major trauma rooms, 17 acute treatment registration and office space and dedicatec entrance parking for seven Floors will be added to the third tower in subsequenf phases, but it won't be as large as the 11-storyh north and south ones. Of the existing emergency 4,250 square feet will be reconfigured and used for loweracuith treatment. The area includes Fast Track, holding/observation, chest pain observationh and stroketreatment rooms. "The accessibility (of the emergency will be improved substantially," says Ron vice president for strategic developmentat VUMC.
"There will be areaz that will accommodate more of a Fast Tracmk patientand we'll triage into the appropriate As the area's only Levell 1 Trauma Center, Vanderbilt needz to efficiently separate the trauma patients from the othere as they enter the hospital, Hill The project comes in response to an undersizee and outdated emergency department facility - the poin t of entry for nearlyh 30 percent of all VUH admissions. At 11,000 squar feet, VUH's emergency departmenf reported morethan 41,000 adult and 30,000 child emergenc y room visits last year, according to a filing with the Its ratio of 0.
30 square feet per visit puts the hospital below all others in Nashville except for Saint Thomas Hospital, whicjh sports a 0.23 ratio. In its constructionm application, Vanderbilt cited a litany of problemsd withthe space, including the location of traumaz rooms in the center of the emergency department, a lack of critical care rooms and an undersized waitinvg room. Officials also said the emergencuydepartment isn't compliant with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations because all 11 critical care roomds are semi-private, possibly allowing others to hear confidentia l information.
The department also doesn'tf have a separate cistern for decontaminating water in the even of bioterrorism or a negatives pressure room for patients with tuberculosisa and othercommunicable diseases. These plannesd projects have become possible following the pendin opening of thenew Children'ws Hospital. That has created 175,000 square feet of vacant spacreat VUMC, including 81,400 inside Vanderbiltf University Hospital. On the north tower's fourth floor, Vanderbilt plans to renovate 6,00 0 square feet in a four-month project that startsz next month.
The neonatal intensive care unit will be moved to thenew children'ss hospital, leaving behind 10 beds and spacw for on-call suites for sevenn to 10 residents on call, support space and two triagse rooms for labor and delivery. In a 12-month builders will renovate 43,500 square feet and add 3,500 to the fifth floor by building out into theexistinvg courtyard. The entire floor's interior, which housed will be demolished and The 65 pediatric beds that are being relocatef tothe children's hospital will be replaced by 48 neurosurgery/neurolog y and cardiology beds.
These universal patienyt rooms, slated to increase from 150 square feet in size to 350squares feet, will become the prototype for all futurre room renovations at the hospital. The sixth-flood renovation project calls for upgrades and a newnursw station, with the 49 beds whittlexd down to 45 neurology/neurosurgery, epilepsy and cardiologty beds. On the south tower's 11th workers in February 2005 willrenovater 12,000 square feet of spacw to accommodate the burn which is being relocated from Round Wing of Medical Centetr North. Renovations include mechanical work for the air qualitt needs of the burn The number of ICU and acute rooms will be loweres from 30to 2.