Press Releases: Northwest
February 3, 2003
Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center staff help design new unit providing better patient care, safer working conditions, and lower maintenance costs
CLACKAMAS, Ore. – Located on the third floor of Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center's south wing, a new 20-bed unit reflects the growing need for inpatient beds in Oregon and around the nation. Like all Americans, Kaiser Permanente members are growing older and gaining weight, with a corresponding risk of more diabetes and kidney failure. Anticipating more hospitalizations from these causes, the new unit is especially designed to care for patients with diabetes and those needing dialysis because of kidney problems.
Manager of the unit, Nancy Jones, RN, says the new unit represents a major upgrade in patient care and comfort, and employee safety and involvement.
Kaiser Sunnyside's Lead Housekeeper Cheryl Meaney says that under the auspices of the Labor Management Partnership, employee representatives got to meet with the architect and designers to help plan the unit.
"For instance, we suggested getting a floor that's made from more expensive rubber. Not only is it easier on the feet, but because it needs only to be mopped and not waxed, we'll save time on maintenance," says Meaney. "In the long run, it's going to be cheaper."
Says Jones, "I've been a nurse for 30 years, and this is the best designed unit I've seen. It shows what can happen when you ask the people who work in an area how it should be designed."
Among the new unit's key features are:
- All rooms are private, with their own bathroom and shower, built-in woodgrain cabinets, cushioned window seat, and a bulletin board where patients can tack up get-well cards and family photos.
- Two rooms meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards for wheelchair accessibility, including the showers. · Anticipating electronic inpatient medical records in the future, there is space designed for computers.
- One room is a "negative-pressure" room with an isolation anteroom for supplies. The room can be used to safely care for patients with diseases, such as tuberculosis, that can be spread through the air.
- Another room is specially shielded to safely accommodate thyroid cancer patients who are undergoing therapy with low-level radioactive isotopes.
- By eliminating two outside corridors, a wider central hallway has been created. Patients also have better views from their beds.
- The unit uses a new approach to food service freeing nurses from microwaving and delivering patient meals. Instead, a diet aide will heat the food in a modern convection oven (resulting in better taste) and then deliver the meal. Each aide has been trained not only to check back with patients to see how they liked their meal, but to record food and calorie intake.
The south wing was added to Kaiser Sunnyside in 1984 in anticipation of more hospital beds being needed right away. But demand for hospital beds fell due to a greater reliance on outpatient surgeries and shorter lengths of stay, so it had been used for physician offices until the $4 million remodel began last year.
