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MUSC begins ‘healing hospitality’
By Molly Parker
Staff Writer
If heart trouble leads you to the Medical University of South Carolina next year, it may feel as if you’ve checked into a hotel instead of a hospital.
Based on a concept of “healing hospitality,” the new 641,000-square-foot hospital complex, located at the corner of Courtenay Drive and Doughty Street, is designed to aid the medical process by providing a comfortable and non-institutional environment for patients and their families.
Looking beyond the scalpel, university officials and hospital personnel hope the larger rooms, natural lighting, views overlooking downtown Charleston and the Ashley River, easily navigable hallways and such amenities as retail shopping and high-speed Internet will put patients and visitors at ease and provide the comforts that often seem to be absent from the medical process and environment.
The complex reflects a new wave of hospital construction throughout the nation as medical facilities begin to mimic high-end hotels, and design emphasis shifts from staid efficiency to patient comfort and satisfaction.
The seven-story patient hospitality tower and adjoining four-story diagnostic and treatment center, set to be dedicated Oct. 12 and opened for patients in January, are the result of months of study and design by faculty, staff, students, administrators and architects. The complex also marks the first step in a 20-year master plan to rebuild the university’s 1940s downtown clinical zone.
“It’s very, very unusual,” said Dr. Mark DeLegge, director of MUSC’s Digestive Disease Center. “When you walk in, you feel at ease, and a sense of awe about it.”
The new hospital will house the disease center and MUSC’s Heart & Vascular Center, two nationally recognized programs at the university; both are expected to expand significantly in the coming years as the Charleston population grows and ages, said Chris Malanuk, MUSC’s director of strategic planning.
A brochure showcasing the new hospital brags of its “brick masonry facades, punched window openings and a limestone colonnade” that creates “connections to the past,” an important element in building in the historic downtown area, said Greg Soyka, an associate principal with LS3P Associates Ltd., a Charleston-based architectural firm, and executive project manager for the new hospital.
LS3P works as a consultant to MUSC’s contracted architect, MBBJ, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.
The building was designed to enhance natural lighting with windows that stretch floor-to-ceiling on every level, and a curved glass waiting area at the end of the hallways with views overlooking the Ashley River. Even the rooms have water views or look out onto the historic city, Soyka said.
“Day lighting reduces the amount of lights you need on, but the bigger benefit is the physiological effect of knowing what’s going on outdoors for staff working 12- to 14-hour days … and helps the patients and their visitors as well,” he said.
The patient tower was “inspired by the ambience of a fine hotel,” and accordingly, MUSC advertises the hospital will offer such services as valet parking, personal escorts, family lounges with kitchenettes and a visitors’ business center.
The tower’s curved glass façade set in metal was inspired by the town’s nautical roots; it is meant to look like a sail. And Soyka is prepared to defend using so much glass in a city prone to hurricanes.
The structure is designed to withstand winds of more than 130 mph, but a mock-up proved in testing to stand up against winds blowing more than 220 mph. The glass design also proved victorious against marbles flying toward it at 80 mph, as well as 2-by-4 boards shot against it at the same speed.
The four-story diagnostic and treatment center located next door will be connected to the patient tower by a garden atrium. Patients and guests first arriving to the hospital will be greeted by the lavish conservatory, with palm trees and large windows and cozy lounging chairs.
But it wasn’t all about creating a building that’s easy on the eyes, Soyka said. The design concept was centered on offering privacy, convenience and dignity.
“The greatest thing is the amenities it offers to patients’ families,” he said. “A lot of effort went into creating a comfortable environment for them, because if the family is there, the patient outcome is improved, and the more comfortable the facility, the more likely it is that
family will visit.”
Those concepts are rooted in the details, Malanuk added, such as providing wireless Internet access in all the rooms, thereby allowing long-term patients to continue their business or simply keep in touch with the outside world.
It also means providing patients with a comforting place to check in for a potentially uncomfortable exam or surgery, or family and friends a place to get away, whether it is a store, cafeteria or lounge they prefer to help pass the time, he said. All the rooms are single-patient and include a sleeper sofa for overnight guests.
The hospital also was designed with doctors, nurses and staff in mind, Malanuk said. For instance, visitors will use different hallways than medical personnel and patients, lightening the traffic load and providing privacy. The patient and operating rooms are equipped to handle the most advanced medical technologies, and nursing stations were strategically placed to allow easy view of critical patients’ rooms.
Another feature of the combined buildings is that surgical patients will stay on the same floor on which their procedure was performed, allowing doctors and other staff to handle anesthesia, prep, surgery and recovery in a confined area, negating the need to haul a patient on a public elevator.
“We’re paying attention to all of those kinds of details in a facility that lends itself to paying attention to those kinds of details,” said Dr. Eric Powers, a professor of medicine and medical director of the Heart & Vascular Center.
Power, heat and air are provided to the building by a recently constructed energy plant located nearby with a generator that will provide 100% backup, meaning it’s unlikely the hospital will ever experience an electrical interruption, Malanuk said.
The entire project was a massive undertaking by the university. It cost about $386 million to build both the hospital complex and energy plant, and to install necessary equipment; the project was funded by two hospital revenue bonds. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through its hospital mortgage insurance program guaranteed the loan to build the hospital, thereby allowing MUSC to secure a lower interest rate. To a smaller degree, the S.C. Jobs and Economic Development Authority helped support the revenue bond to build the energy plant, Malanuk said.
The 156-bed hospital complex and energy plant occupies about 16 football fields of space.
The complex was constructed with the notion that more facilities will come online in the future as the hospital grows, and to be easily adaptable to new technology, Soyka said, noting “the only thing we know about health care is that it will continue to change.”
Molly Parker is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her directly at mparker@setcommedia.com.
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