Major milestone

Project Overview
Project Name  Children's Hospital of Illinois and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center
Location  Peoria, Ill.
Total floor area  440,000 square feet
Number of floors  10
Number of beds  215
(60 neonatal intensive care beds; 32 pediatric intensive care/critical care beds; 32 general pediatrics beds; 32 adult cardiology beds; and 55 emergency department beds, plus 2 triage and 2 trauma beds)
Project cost  $280 million
Construction cost  $200 million
Groundbreaking date  July 2007
Opening date  August 2010

Project Team
Owner  OSF HealthCare
Architect  Cannon Design
Associate Architect for Pediatric Design  Stanley Beaman & Sears
General Contractor  Mortenson Construction
Interior Designer  Cannon Design in association with Stanley Beaman & Sears
MEP Engineering  KJWW Engineering Consultants
Structural Engineering  Thornton Tomasetti
Medical Equipment Planning Mitchell Associates
Landscaping  Hitchcock Design Group
Civil Engineering  Hanson
Signage  Stanley Beaman & Sears

The design and construction of expanded facilities for the Children's Hospital of Illinois and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, Peoria, was such a significant development at the hospital that it was known as the Milestone project.

The project was an opportunity to remedy several facility issues, including bringing Children's Hospital of Illinois, which was officially established within OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in 1990, under one roof. "Children's Hospital was fragmented, with services in multiple buildings. The whole patient experience needed to be addressed," says Sue Wozniak, FACHE, who was the organization's chief operating officer (COO) throughout the Milestone project.

The 440,000-square-foot facility expansion includes a new lobby with convenient outpatient care, new emergency and surgery departments, and new units for cardiovascular procedures, adult cardiac care, neonatal intensive care, pediatric critical care and general pediatrics. There is also a shelled floor for future use.

In addition to consolidating services, the expansion project enabled the hospital to improve access and wayfinding, implement new technology and care models, and increase the capacity, safety and flexibility of the Level 1 trauma center and tertiary care medical center.

Building blocks

The new facility establishes a clear entry sequence that begins as people approach the medical center from Interstate 74, which runs along the west side of the campus. From this perspective, the facility can be seen as an abstract composition of colored children's blocks. The modern design fits with existing campus structures, but provides subtle cues that this building is something different, says Randy Guillot, AIA, LEED AP, design principal, from the Chicago office of Cannon Design.

The new addition is attached to a parking garage by an enclosed pedestrian bridge that links to the existing hospital. A secondary reception point at the entrance to the pedestrian bridge helps direct people to their correct destination. The pattern of the terrazzo flooring also is designed to lead patients and visitors down a daylit corridor to the new lobby. Bold splashes of color provide wayfinding landmarks throughout the building. "It's a very deliberate sequence that tries to take away some of the anxiety of not knowing where you're going," Guillot says.

Something for everyone

The lobby features a glass sculpture based on St. Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun, which is used as a theme throughout the hospital design.

Enclosed admitting and registration booths in the lobby ensure patient privacy. A centralized diagnostic services area puts such common outpatient services as electrocardiograph testing and the laboratory in one location. A family resource center provides office, kitchen and laundry facilities for those whose family members are hospitalized for long periods.

The lobby includes a special waiting area for children. Here, an enclosed interactive media system allows projected images to be manipulated digitally as if by magic. Burn Sears, AIA, principal-in-charge for Stanley Beaman & Sears (SBS), Atlanta, associated architect for pediatric design, notes the system's projectors are mounted in the ceiling, rather than on the wall, to provide patients in wheelchairs the opportunity to interact with the images — for instance, to roll through and scatter a pile of leaves projected on the floor.

Child-height design features take advantage of children's unique perspective on the world. Young children can peer through the circular elements in the decorative glass near the gift shop and family resource center. Columns along the concourse of the admitting and diagnostic services waiting areas are wrapped in solid-surface wall panels with raised images of animals. These are not overt in the environment, but are there for discovery by kids, explains Jocelyn Stroupe, IIDA, AAHID, EDAC, interior designer, Cannon Design.

"We tried to select design elements that were appealing to both children and adults," says Wozniak.

'Best of both worlds'

In the new surgical department, a child life playroom and separate waiting and preoperative/recovery rooms for adults and children ensure that the needs of both patient populations are addressed. "But the expensive aspects of the surgery are shared — the technical aspects. So we've got the best of both worlds," Wozniak says. There are four heart surgery suites with adjacent cardiac catheterization laboratories for adult and pediatric patients, and three specialized pediatric operating rooms.

Operating room temperature control is calibrated to provide the best environment for different procedures. The temperature of the pediatric operating rooms can be raised to 90 degrees in 10 minutes; in the heart surgery suites, it can be dropped to 60 degrees in 15 minutes. Many such safety features, including patient lifts and separate adult and pediatric pharmacies, are included in the new facility.

On the patient units, the rooms are designed for any acuity level. The hospital currently draws critical care patients to most of its services, but "health care is in flux. We don't know if that will change over time," Wozniak says. Every new patient room — including adult and neonatal intensive care — is private, has its own bathroom and contains overnight accommodations for family members. Private sleep suites on the neonatal intensive care unit give parents a place to take an extended break, says Bessie Stephenson, program manager, SBS.

Conscious decisions

According to Guillot, the medical center leadership was conscious of how every design decision would affect the lives of people who use the building. With a project of this scope, says Wozniak, "you'd better be making positive change."

The project was somewhat of a personal milestone for Wozniak, who retired as COO shortly after the new building opened. She says it was a great way to end her career as a health care executive, and that with the new facility the medical center is "absolutely, no question" serving patients better.

Amy Eagle is a freelance writer based in Homewood, Ill., who specializes in health care-related topics. She is a regular contributor to Health Facilities Management.