Surgical Tower designed with Patient Safety in mind

Private Room Design Maximizes Patient Safety 

The Surgical Tower features spacious, private rooms with lots of daylight streaming in from tall windows overlooking Syracuse’s North side neighborhood.  All the rooms are designed to be identical with everything located in the same place in each room. This design is based on evidence showing that the consistency between rooms can reduce the likelihood of errors. It also maximizes productivity, making it easier for nurses to move from room to room as they care for patients. Research also shows private rooms help create a healing environment. They are quieter and allow for families to more readily spend time with the patients, helping them get better more quickly. Finally, private rooms reduce healthcare infections. Speaking of infection control, there are cabinets strategically located throughout the new floors. No more carts lining the hallways as is normally the case in hospitals. 

Designed to Prevent Patient Falls 

Falls are the number one unplanned event that happens to patients in the hospital. The average cost of a fall in the hospital today is $20,000. The Surgical Tower rooms are designed to reduce the incidence of falls by helping patients better move around within the room. For example, the bathrooms, located in each room, are strategically located so patients can see them from their bed. This is on purpose; research shows when people have a line of sight and can see where they are going, they are surer of themselves and less likely to have an accident. There is also a special lift system, running along the ceiling in every room that can help patients move in and out of bed and to the bathroom. Finally, a unique patient observation area has been created in a central area of the floors where patients who need a little extra monitoring can relax or watch television within view of the caregivers, keeping them as safe as possible while they heal. 

“Smart” Beds, Devices Mean More Personal Care, Quieter Floors

The new surgical tower employs “smart” technology that makes for a more efficient stay, not to mention a quieter one. The beds can do everything from alert nurses to patients who are at risk to fall to adjusting the lights and turning on the television. And gone are the call bells everyone is used to hearing on nursing floors. In their place is a robust nurse call system that notifies caregivers quickly and efficiently through cell phones on an internal wireless network. For example, if a patient presses the button to call for a nurse, a notification immediately appears on the nurse’s cell phone and he or she must answer and/or visit the room to turn off the overhead notification light outside the room. This same system can call for security, more help in an emergency and more. The workstations on wheels, laptops on movable carts, are integrated with the vital signs machines so when a caregiver takes a patient’s temperature, blood pressure or oxygen level, those results are automatically uploaded into the patient’s medical record. This greatly reduces the chance of error and is much more efficient for the caregiver. St. Joseph’s approach to technology is a simple and personal one – eliminate manual processes to provide the caregiver with more time at the patient’s bedside.