To get a true idea of the time and effort that’s been invested in the expansion of Chester County Hospital and the renovation of its Emergency Department, imagine the undertaking as an iceberg. The part you see — the actual construction — is only the tip!
Indeed, starting in 2015, architects met with clinical staff for more than two years to ensure that the designs for each of the areas — operating rooms, Post-Anesthesia Care Unit, Intensive Care Unit, patient rooms and Emergency Department — met varied needs. Using largescale layouts of the areas, populated with proportionate, 3D printouts of the necessary equipment for each respective space, architects and clinicians not only discussed current needs but also tried to plan for a rapidly evolving future. “What kind of technology will be available in 50 years? What will the equipment look like?” said Jen Corse, the hospital’s nursing business manager and clinical lead for the project. “It’s been a little daunting.”
To meet these as-yet unknown needs, “we tried to provide a lot of flexibility in the design,” said Larry Bell, the hospital’s senior project manager for the expansion and renovation. For example, the ORs will be big enough to accommodate large equipment and added personnel for increasingly complex surgeries.
Full-size mockups of each of the floorplans were also created in an unused corner of the hospital. “It goes beyond just looking at a drawing and trying to guess, ‘Is this adequate circulation space?’” Bell said. “We even did an elevator mock up because one of the critical parts of treatment is patient transport.”
While the design meetings concluded before the start of the construction in 2017, a similar round of sessions are expected to begin in the coming months, addressing how to best incorporate the new and updated spaces into the rest of the hospital so that they will function seamlessly.