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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Henry Mayo Opening New ICU

Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital is opening a new intensive care unit to give patients higher comfort and more up-to-date technology, hospital officials said. The new Wayne and Connie Spears Intensive Care Unit, expected to open during the summer, will include 18 private patient rooms. The $7.5 million expansion will also include Internet access for each patient’s room, a private waiting room area for patients’ families and friends, a family conference room and a dedicated elevator that provides easy access from the emergency department and the hospital’s imaging services. Hospital officials said that while the current unit provides patients with appropriate care, it is less comfortable and efficient. “It was designed truly for function, where the new department was designed for enhanced function, but also to create a calm, healing environment,” said Dee Rickett, the hospital’s director of critical care. Natural color tones, dome lights and the general design of the new unit give it a “curvy” feel, making patients feel like they’re flowing through the facility, Rickett added. The new intensive care unit will be more than double the size of the current unit and will have about six more beds. Patients will no longer have to share rooms, Rickett said. Other new features include patient lifts, two negative pressure isolation rooms and computer stations for nurses directly outside the patients’ rooms. The new unit takes up space formerly used as administrative offices, which have been relocated, Rickett said. The hospital held its grand opening celebration for the unit on June 2. Once the new intensive care unit opens, the hospital will begin building a new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with 11 beds to treat premature and sick newborn babies. Plans for the upgraded unit, which is expected to open in 2011, are still awaiting state approval.

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