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

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next month plans to begin construction ona $37.7 million project that include laying the foundation for a third medical tower and enlarginh the emergency department. If approved by state regulators, the work will begin soon afterthe facility's pediatricsd unit moves to the new $172 million Monroe Carel l Jr. . Working on five different floors, Vanderbilt will add 32 beds, plus a previouslyu approved 54, to boost its size to 805 licensed beds. Vanderbilt University Medical the hospital's parent, is funding the work througb $35 million in tax-exempt bonds and $2.
7 million in cash The plan - which calls for 34,500 square feet of new construction and the renovation of 100,00o square feet - will be consideredx by the Tennessee Health Servicews and Development Agency on Dec. 17. No one has file in opposition tothe project. Starting in January, Vanderbilt planws to add over the next 15months 15,5000 square feet of space and renovate 7,150 square feet in the present-da y emergency department and ambulance area. The emergency department will double in size and becomde the first floor of the plannesdthird tower.
It will house four major traumas rooms, 17 acute treatment rooms, registrationj and office space and dedicatedd entrance parking forseven ambulances. Floors will be addedf to the third tower in subsequent phases, but it won't be as larger as the 11-story north and south Of the existing emergency department, 4,250 squarew feet will be reconfigured and used for lower acuithy treatment. The area includes Fast holding/observation, chest pain observation and strokwetreatment rooms.
"The accessibility (of the emergencg department) will be improved says Ron Hill, vice president for strategic developmentat "There will be areas that will accommodate more of a Fast Tracik patient and we'll triage into the appropriat e area." As the area's only Level 1 Trauma Vanderbilt needs to efficiently separate the traumwa patients from the others as they enter the Hill says. The project comesz in response to an undersized and outdatex emergency departmentfacility - the point of entryy for nearly 30 percent of all VUH admissions.
At 11,00 square feet, VUH's emergency department reportefd morethan 41,000 adultf and 30,000 child emergency room visitsw last year, according to a filint with the state. Its ratio of 0.30 square feet per visif puts the hospital below all others in Nashville except for SaintThomas Hospital, which sports a 0.23 ratio. In its constructiom application, Vanderbilt cited a litany of problemss withthe space, including the location of trauma rooms in the centedr of the emergency department, a lack of criticall care rooms and an undersized waitinb room.
Officials also said the emergencydepartmenft isn't compliant with Health Insurance Portability and Accountabilitty Act regulations because all 11 critical care rooms are possibly allowing others to hear confidentiak information. The department also doesn't have a separatr cistern for decontaminating water in the event of bioterrorisjm or a negative pressure room for patients with tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. These planned projects have become possible following the pending openinfg of thenew Children's Hospital. That has created 175,000 square feet of vacant space at VUMC, including 81,400 inside Vanderbilt University Hospital.
On the nortj tower's fourth floor, Vanderbilt plans to renovated 6,000 square feet in a four-month projecy that starts next month. The neonatal intensivr care unit will be moved to thenew children's hospital, leaving behind 10 beds and space for on-call suites for seven to 10 residents on call, supporg space and two triage rooms for labor and In a 12-month project, builders will renovate 43,5009 square feet and add 3,500 to the fifth floor by buildint out into the existiny courtyard. The entire floor's interior, whic h housed pediatrics, will be demolishedd and rebuilt.
The 65 pediatric beds that are being relocateed tothe children's hospital will be replacer by 48 neurosurgery/neurology and cardiology These universal patient rooms, slated to increase from 150 squar feet in size to 350 square feet, will become the prototyp e for all future room renovations at the The sixth-floor renovation projec t calls for upgrades and a new nurser station, with the 49 beds whittled down to 45 neurology/neurosurgery, epilepsy and cardiology beds. On the south tower's 11th workers in February 2005 willrenovatse 12,000 square feet of space to accommodate the burn unit, which is beiny relocated from Round Wing of Medical Centert North.
Renovations include mechanical work for the air qualitt needs of theburn unit. The number of ICU and acutse rooms will be lowered from 30to 2.