Visioning Conference With Healthcare Specialists Gives Birth to the Design of West Valley’s Shining Star — Banner Estrella Medical Center

When the project team of Banner Health System’s newest facility, Banner Estrella Medical Center in Phoenix, set out to build the hospital for the future, they tapped into some of the best minds in healthcare to help co-create a hospital that would not only meet today’s needs but those of 2010 and beyond.

“Our vision for Banner Estrella is to ‘transform the healthcare experience,’” said Connie Harmsen, CEO of Banner Estrella Medical Center. “To truly be successful in building the hospital for the future, we invited internal and external healthcare experts and futurists to join us for a two-day, interactive visioning conference to help identify and design elements of our new hospital.”

Topics of discussion with a panel of six futurists from around the country included the impact genomics, information technology, alternative medicine and disease prevention will have on healthcare delivery and the hospital for the future. The group of more than 125 participants also heard from local physicians and clinicians regarding the latest research with Alzheimer’s disease and new diagnostic imaging technology; therapeutic cloning, regenerative medicine and designer babies; the future treatment of diabetes and obesity; coronary angiogenesis; and the future role of the Emergency Department and hospital-based physicians. In addition, NBBJ, an internationally recognized healthcare architectural firm designing Banner Estrella in conjunction with Orcutt/Winslow Partnership, spoke specifically to the fundamental design of hospitals.

To close the session, participants broke into teams that included an architect from NBBJ or Orcutt/Winslow and a builder from DPR. Based on what had been discussed, the teams outlined and designed various elements of the hospital by creating physical models of the hospital for the future and sharing their creations with the entire group.

The overall consensus was that the hospital for the future must possess the following six elements:

• Flexibility and Adaptability. All rooms will be private with monitoring capability. A third of the patient care rooms can be intensive care or universal rooms. All patient rooms will include living space for visiting friends and family members. The hospital will also feature an Interventional Suite that combines surgery, cardiac cath labs and interventional radiology rooms adjacent to medical imaging to increase flexibility as technology advances and procedures continue to change.
• Effective Information Technology. With the plan to become a paperless, wireless, digital hospital, Banner Estrella will be a fully computerized hospital with an electronic medical record, computerized physician order entry and patient computer stations, allowing for bedside data entry.
• Ambulatory Diagnostic and Treatment Focus. The hospital will be connected via an enclosed pedestrian bridge to the medical office complex and outpatient surgery center, providing physicians, employees and visitors easy access throughout the health campus.
• Operational Efficiency. Depart-ments are being strategically placed next to each other to ensure efficient and effective processes of care.
• Service Excellence. Amenities, such as a “medical mall” with restaurants, specialty shops and room service are some of the features that will be added to increase overall patient, employee and physician satisfaction.
• Healing Environment. Banner Estrella will also include several healing gardens, outdoor classrooms, an educational conference center, and a meditation chapel at the heart of the facility.

“The Banner Estrella team has taken DPR’s collaborative approach to construction to new heights,” said Gerry DeWulf, project manager for DPR. “During the breakout design session, we gathered lots of different materials, including tinker toys, cardboard, rocks, fruits, vegetables and even dollhouse furniture, to create a physical image of what we thought the hospital should look like. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to listen, learn and create something extraordinary, and we’re looking forward to breaking ground and putting our technical expertise to the test as we build the hospital for the future for Banner.”

Currently in the design development stage, with a groundbreaking set for February 2003, the 440,000-sq.-ft. project, located on a 50-acre site on the southeast corner of Loop 101 and Thomas Road in Phoenix, includes ground-up construction of a new full-service, acute care, 167-bed hospital that will offer emergency, inpatient, outpatient, diagnostic, obstetric, and cardiac services, including open-heart surgery. To meet the aggressive 30-month design and construction schedule, with completion slated for November 2004, the project team will take an innovative approach to the hospital building process by finishing core and shell six to seven months prior to interior design and building out the rest of the hospital much like completing tenant improvements in a corporate office or laboratory building.

“For this project, we will be leveraging all of our diverse industry expertise — from manufacturing cleanrooms and biotech laboratories to corporate tenant improvements and high performance green building practices,” said DeWulf. “Transforming the healthcare experience begins with everything from how the hospital is designed and built to how it functions over the long-term.”