The New $829 million Ronald Reagan Medical Center has opened its doors after relocating 275 hospital patients and 60 psychiatric patients to its new facility.
The 1 million-square-foot building houses 520 beds and includes the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided $432 million in earthquake relief toward the project and the state of California provided $44 million. Private donors contributed nearly $300 million, including a $150 million gift pledged in Ronald Reagan's honor by a group of civic and cultural leaders. The balance of funding came from hospital financing and bonds.
The patient move was the culmination of years of planning and coordination and involved millions of dollars worth of equipment, thousands of staff members and hundreds of patients.
The hospital is surrounded by gardens. Large, private patient rooms are wireless and offer a flat screen TV and DVD player. Hospital officials say the building emphasizes personal attention to patients and holistic healing.
"The new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center embraces the idea that good architecture is an integral part of the healing process," said C.C. Pei, son of architect I.M. Pei, who designed the hospital. "We worked hard to create a design that not only meets the project's technical and scientific goals but also creates an environment that is cheerful, inspirational and intimate, despite its large size. We've aimed to design an environment for people, not just machines."
To adapt to the changing needs of healthcare over the next century, the design team emphasized openness and flexibility, creating a technologically smart building with the capacity to be upgraded on an ongoing basis.
The hospital has one nursing station for every 26 beds. All information is managed electronically, including patient charts. A wall-mounted pneumatic tube in the nursing station carries material to labs as well as outside pharmacies.
The operating rooms are equipped with camera feeds and monitors. Surgeries are displayed on monitors in the OR and can be transmitted to other facilities.
Surgeons, using voice-activated controls, can select from three camera feeds, annotate over images, record the procedure on DVD, bring up patient data and images and participate in a video conference during the surgery.
The hospital also provides what officials call an "interactive oasis" where teens can engage with peers online.
"Although this has been an enormous and exciting project for all of us to be a part of, what really defines this hospital is its ability to serve the needs of the Los Angeles community like no other hospital can," said Gerald S. Levey, vice chancellor of medical sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "The seismically safe facility incorporates 21st Century technology designed to lend maximum efficiency, patient privacy and a safer environment - making it a premier institution in the U.S., and therefore the world."
Is your hospital planning a move toward a more holistic environment or overhauling its IT? E-mail Associate Editor Molly Merrill at molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com.