SSM Health Care - St. Louis is building SSM St. Clare Health Center, a replacement hospital for SSM St. Joseph Hospital of Kirkwood, a new $215 million campus on a 54-acre site that is planned to open in the Spring of 2009.
The design for the 158-bed SSM St. Clare revealed a campus focusing on convenience and accessibility resulting in a hospital that is human-centered, with an emphasis on comfort and safety.
SSM St. Clare will incorporate four “patient experience zones” – Emergency, Outpatient Services, Inpatient Care and Surgical/Specialty Services – each with separate parking and entrances. The zones will be connected by a central Town Square area that will offer dining and retail services, a business and health information center, and convenient meeting space. The hospital will also have a chapel and meditation/spiritual areas throughout.
Key features of SSM St. Clare’s design include:
- Distinct settings for cancer patients, heart care and women’s services organized around the patients’ needs. Patients will have convenient, one-stop access to all the services they need without having to travel to multiple locations within the hospital.
- A dedicated outpatient services area that will provide quick access and close-in parking.
- Multiple, decentralized nursing alcoves, rather than the traditional centralized nursing station, bring caregivers closer to the patients to improve safety and response.
- Large, all-private patient suites with an area that includes sleeping accommodations for family members.
The latest in information technology to promote quality and patient safety; for example, bar codes on patient’s wristbands that correspond with bar codes on medications, to lessen the risk for errors.