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Residents get chance to see inside new $145 million hospital and clinic

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St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital and Dean Clinic-Janesville East

The new $145 million St. Mary's Janesville Hospital and Dean Clinic-Janesville East, located at the southeast corner of Highway 11 and Interstate 90/39.

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JANESVILLE — St. Mary's Janesville Hospital and Dean Clinic-Janesville East won't officially open for 38 days, but thousands of curiosity-seekers are expected to come through the doors this weekend during a two-day community open house.

Dean and SSM Health Care of Wisconsin announced plans in April 2008 for the $145 million hospital and clinic at the southeast corner of Highway 11 and Interstate 90/39.

Nearly a year later, officials cited unfavorable credit markets in delaying their plans.

Speculation swirled that the delay had more to do with the closing of the General Motors plant and the economic downturn than it did with bond markets, but Dean and SSM officials vowed that the project would happen.

Construction started in the fall of 2009, and the 50-bed hospital and clinic is set to open on schedule Monday, Jan. 9.

Hospital officials don't know how many people will tour the facility this weekend.

But if their order for 12,000 cookies is any indication, it's likely that the weekend's tour groups will be many.

Most of the hospital and clinic will be open for guided tours offering a unique perspective on the workings and amenities of a large medical facility.

Here are five things you won't want to miss on the tour:

Somatom CT Scanner

Most likely the most expensive single piece of equipment in the hospital, the 128-slice scanner is a first for the region.

In fact, the closest of its kind is in Eau Claire, said Nancy Kitchen, St. Mary's director of radiology.

Most scanners are 64-slice, she said. The new model allows technicians to optimize image quality while dramatically reducing the patient's exposure to radiation.

"In a cardiac scan situation, that means that what would be a 30-second exposure can be reduced to 12 to 15 seconds, and the image quality is so much better.

"And," she said, "the patient doesn't have to hold their breath as long, which can be difficult for 30 seconds."

Mobile lab

Anyone with any experience in a hospital bed knows about patient labels.

They're stuck on everything—from charts to specimens.

Typically printed in a central location, they often are done for many patients at once, said Kalynn Baumann, the hospital's lab director.

That won't be the case at St. Mary's, where small handheld computers will compile all physician orders and print labels bedside.

The wireless system is designed to increase patient safety by eliminating identification errors possible when sheets of labels for several patients come off a common printer at the same time, she said.

"It will provide a significant increase in patient safety," Baumann said. "We're only the second hospital in the SSM system to have this, and the other is in Oklahoma."

Intensive care unit beds

Spend a night in one of these, and you'll probably inquire about taking it home with you.

About the only thing the $34,000 Stryker beds won't do is bathe the patient, said Penni Logterman, a registered nurse in the ICU.

They're drivable from the rear, which provides an ergonomic boost for staff.

They contort in any number of ways to help move patients or prevent bed sores, and they're inflatable to reduce pressure points.

They'll even electronically fold into what resembles an oversize chair.

Vibrators massage a patient and help reduce phlegm buildup, and a built-in scale sounds an alarm when he or she tries to get out of bed.

A control panel allows staff, at the touch of a button, to ask routine questions in any number of languages.

When it's time to rest, the bed will even play music. Just pick the genre, but here's a tip: The jungle sounds might be a bit too creepy at night.

Grand Central Station?

If that's your translation for what's more accurately known as large nursing stations, you won't find them at St. Mary's.

Charting and computer work stations are located inside and just outside every patient room, a move to protect privacy and bring care closer to the patient, said Joan Neeno, the hospital's director of marketing and public relations.

It's a trend in the hospital industry, she said.

"Part of the idea is to make things quieter, and the carpet in the halls and the elimination of the busy nursing stations helps do that," she said. "This also keeps the caregivers closer to the patients."

The nerve center

The heart of any hospital is its operating room, or in St. Mary's case, operating rooms.

The five rooms each are 600 square feet, and they're all about video interaction. Overhead banks of monitors allow staff and surgeons to call up just about any sort of information relevant to the procedure at hand.

Surgeries can be videotaped for teaching purposes.

Neeno said the public will be allowed into the operating rooms, which each cost about $1 million to outfit.