The Day After Move Day
By Julie Ruiz-Wibbelsmann
First impressions are important. When Connie Taylor-Smith of environmental services walked into the new Eden Medical Center, she was amazed: “I’ve worked here for 28 years and they said they were going to build a new hospital. And now it’s happened. And it’s awesome!”
Move Day Is Here: December 1, 2012!
By Julie Ruiz-Wibbelsmann
We are on the move! After years of planning, we are so excited to be moving into our new Eden Medical Center this Saturday, Dec. 1–just three years after breaking ground in July of 2009!
Constructing the 220,000-square-foot hospital and 80,000-square-foot medical office building required 22,000 cubic yards of concrete, 6.4 million pounds of structural steel and 43,000 square feet of glass.
But our state-of-the-art medical center is made of much more than steel and concrete: Patient-centered care is built into its core design.
“We’ve created a next generation medical center fully equipped with the latest technology,” said George Bischalaney, CEO, Eden Medical Center, “and an outstanding team of people dedicated to excellence in patient care. Tomorrow on Move Day, we will make our dream a reality as we open one of the most advanced medical centers in the East Bay Area.” Read More about Move Day Is Here: December 1, 2012!
Eden Medical Center Move-Day Preparations
By Bryan Daylor, vice president of ancillary services at Eden Medical Center
Moving from an apartment or home takes lots of planning and packing, but moving an entire hospital–with all of its multiple floors full of rooms, departments, divisions, units and equipment–requires a very high level of planning and preparation.
Using a carefully crafted plan, we’ve been moving in phases since Aug. 4, which will be completed by Nov. 30. This will facilitate our operations and ensure that we are fully functional when we open our doors and move our current patients into our new Eden Medical Center on Dec. 1, 2012. Read More about Eden Medical Center Move-Day Preparations
Navigating the Regulatory Environment
By Debora Hendrickson, executive director for professional services
Getting a driver’s license can seem complicated, but imagine having to get multiple licenses? That’s exactly what each medical center in California must do before serving patients.
Like other healthcare facilities, our new Eden Medical Center must be fully licensed by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), as well as meet the conditions of participation from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), in order to serve patients.
To meet these challenges, we’ve assembled a regulatory team consisting of myself, our safety officer, risk manager, director of quality, nurses, as well as the heads of the Laboratory; Food and Nutrition Services; and Radiology Department. Read More about Navigating the Regulatory Environment
Castro Valley Medical Office Building Designed for Clinical Excellence
By Josh Bronitsky, DPR project manager, and Melissa Curran, Sutter project manager
When the Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation (SEBMF) office building opens its doors on Nov. 19, it will have clinical excellence built into its design, work processes and even the building materials—all to enhance the way we care for our patients.
Patient-focused care: self rooming and point-of-care service
Located at the new Eden Medical Center, our 80,000 square-foot building will consist of four floors. Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation (SEBMF) physicians in the following specialties will be housed on the third floor:
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT or otolaryngology)
- Endocrinology
- Obstetrics/gynecology (OB/GYN)
- Primary care (internal medicine and family practice)
- Urogynecology
With 27 exam rooms and nine procedure rooms, the third floor of our building will provide efficient, high-quality care through self rooming and laboratory point-of-care service.
Self rooming will improve the healthcare experience of patients and their families by offering more privacy and less waiting. When patients arrive for their appointment, they will be given a badge system that lets them know which exam room they will be using, so that medical assistants will know immediately when a patient has arrived in a room and needs their care.
For greater convenience, each patient will have their medical services provided to them in their exam room, such as taking their weight and vital signs. If blood work is needed, a phlebotomist will come to the patient, eliminating the inconvenience of a laboratory visit.
Even the design of the exam rooms will be patient-centered. There will be two doors across from each other in each exam room—one will be a patient entrance and the other will be a provider entrance that is located near a workstation where each physician and their care team can consult. This provides an extra layer of privacy and quietness for patients by providing a separate physician-care team space that is not located in the hallways.
Finally, our new building will have a patient education room on the third floor, focusing on patients’ informational needs.
Coordination of care
To create the optimal environment for clinical excellence, we’ve maximized the opportunity for coordination of care for our doctors and medical staff. Each physician and their care team will work together at workstations located close to exam rooms to support their work flow.
Immediate access to a patients’ electronic medical record will also be available in each exam room and workstation so that no matter where in the Sutter system a patient has received care, we will have their complete record of care.
In addition, our free online service, My Health Online, will enhance patient participation in the coordination of care by enabling them to request appointments, renew prescriptions and view most lab results from the convenience of their home.
Other clinical services
Other clinical services open to the public will be located on the first floor and include the following:
- Laboratory services
- Imaging center with X-ray, CT, ultrasound and mammography services
- Urgent care center with six exam rooms, opening in 2013
Our second floor will also have a conference center for educational sessions and other public events as well as staff meetings. Administrative space for Eden Medical Center will also be housed on the second floor and will include Health Information Management (HIM) staff, case managers, as well as staff from professional services and informational services (IS).
Our fourth floor will become the home to more SEBMF doctors and specialties as we expand our services in the future.
Green building design
Our new medical office building will deliver top-notch healthcare efficiently and responsibly by using sustainable building techniques that save energy, as well as water, and that 
incorporate recyclable materials that can be maintained with minimal environmental damage.
This also includes using materials, such as paint and finishes, with a low level of “off gassing”—the release of “volatile organic compounds” (VOCs)—to protect our occupants from chemical emissions while improving the indoor air quality.
With our energy-efficient design, we are tracking towards Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED certification is the recognized standard worldwide for measuring high performance, sustainable green buildings.
Universal Care Unit: An Entirely New Patient Service
By Rose Corcoran, vice president patient care
Our Universal Care Unit (UCU) will offer a completely new patient care model by providing personalized care in private rooms for patients who do not require inpatient hospitalization yet still need care for several hours or overnight.
The Universal Care Unit (Level 02) is comprised of Diagnostic Testing, Peri Operative as well as the Observation Unit (see highlighted text with arrows).
When the new hospital opens on Dec. 1, we anticipate that Eden Medical Center will have the only Universal Care Unit in the East Bay licensed by the California Department of Public Health.
Who do we serve?
One primary reason for creating a Universal Care Unit is to better meet the needs of our patients. More and more patients today are cared for outside of hospitals, in outpatient facilities, mainly due to advances in technology such as minimally invasive surgeries.
At Eden, we offer many different types of minimally invasive procedures, such as knee and hip replacements, and back surgeries. Most are done on an outpatient basis, requiring a few hours of recovery or an overnight stay. These patients can avoid being admitted to the hospital by receiving care in our UCU, which is designed for patients who need care for 24 hours or less.
In addition to patients recovering from outpatient procedures, the UCU will care for patients who may need to be observed before going home as they recover from surgery and/or anesthesia for a few hours or overnight.
More efficient–and faster–care
Our 34-bed Universal Care Unit also will serve patients from the Emergency Department and Trauma Center who are not experiencing life-threatening conditions, but who need further observation, diagnostic testing/evaluation, or monitoring for a few hours or overnight.
By caring for these patients in the UCU, patients with critical care needs in the ED will be treated much sooner, increasing the efficiency of patient flow. In this way, the UCU will expedite care throughout the hospital by improving patient outcomes and reducing the length of stay.
Continuum of care
In our Universal Care Center, patients and their records will no longer move to a different room to receive a different level of care as their care needs change. Patients will stay in the same private room and different providers will come to their room to care for them. By eliminating patient transfers, our UCU will increase patient safety and comfort, while still delivering high quality care.
In addition, UCU patients will be cared for by an inpatient hospitalist who is available 24/7, and every room will have the capability to be monitored. By decentralizing our nursing stations, we will offer more personalized care for our patients and a better nurse-to-patient ratio with a higher number of nurses caring for each patient.
Keeping our UCU patients in the same private room will create a healing environment for them and their family members, who will be able to stay at the bedside of their loved one. Providing a safe and comfortable environment for patients and their families, our UCU promises to increase quality outcomes, enhance patient safety, and promote healing.
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