Young at Heart
The new Lawrenceville campus of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC offers a 21st-century vision for young patients and their families with greater space, better accommodations and a comprehensive array of services.
By Christine H. O'Toole
Above: Children's Hospital's main lobby, with its modern lighting and playful colors, was designed by local architecture firm Astorino.
With long lines waiting for the parking cashier, the scent of popcorn from the snack bar and a dozen families squeezing wheelchairs and toddlers through the throng, the crowded lobby of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC's old location in Oakland sometimes resembled a bus terminal instead of a healing haven. By contrast, the entrance to the hospital's new Lawrenceville campus from its parking garage is the vaulting, light-filled Transformation Corridor, with walls full of art. Officially opening this month, the pediatric hospital that annually serves 13,000 inpatients and half-a-million outpatients now has an appearance to match its world-class reputation.
But as any pediatrician will tell you, it's what's inside that counts, and the $625 million facility is more than just a shiny new shell. "Our growth is related to cutting-edge clinical services," explains Dr. Andrew Urbach, the hospital's medical director for clinical excellence and service. "We have been providing wonderful pediatric care in an undersized and antiquated building. In our new building, there is no limit to what we can do."
At 1.5 million square feet, the new campus at the site of the old St. Francis Hospital dwarfs the old facilities at 900,000 square feet. From the sibling day-care center to a gym for parents as well as for staff, from a fireplace-lit library to a meditation garden, the new hospital defines care as a comprehensive array of services for patients and their families.
Left: A colorful butterfly mural decorates the Transformation Corridor, which leads from the parking garage to the hospital's entrance.
Stress reduction starts with the campus design created by local architects at Astorino; it's premised on big windows and plenty of natural light. The expansive cityscape views from patient rooms and playrooms are a bonus of the hospital's energy-saving design. Two of the eight buildings on campus - comprising three parking garages, two office buildings, a research center, family apartments and the hospital - will be LEED-certified. That's geek-speak for buildings that meet the highest national standards for energy efficiency.
Inside, families with personal experience dictated design. "Beginning in the late-1990s, we organized an ongoing family forum and asked them for ideas on what parents wanted in the new hospital," says Christopher A. Gessner, who became hospital president in April 2008. Topping the wish list: peace, quiet and choices.
"Families played a bigger role," agrees Urbach. "They said, 'We want light, we want views, we want to be connected to the outdoors.' The new hospital also gives them choices - to be alone, to connect with families coping with the same disease, with the hospital public. We offer different levels of privacy."
Right: The nondenominational chapel.
Privacy was elusive in the Oakland building. The 260 old semi-private rooms offered little space for visitors, let alone two families who wanted to stay at the hospital when their children were admitted overnight. Since children with infectious diseases require isolation, beds at the old hospital often went empty. So private rooms - the case for the majority of the 296 beds in the Lawrenceville site - made sense to both families and hospital staff.
"If families have privacy - in treatment rooms, in patient rooms - there's less stress. They're more willing to share information," says Urbach. He offers an example. "In the old building, going to the operating room, a patient would roll through public areas. It was fairly humiliating going through the central elevators. In the new hospital, we have onstage and offstage areas."
To keep the dialogue going, Children's mocked up layouts for five different types of rooms and invited families, as well as staff, to weigh in. The consensus that emerged resulted in a series of spaces for caregivers, patients and families within each room. Little things mattered. Given a choice between a private shower or more functional space in the critical-care units, for example, parents chose space over showers.
Left: A timeline marks important dates in Children's Hospital's (and Pittsburgh's) history.
And after bunking on awkward lounge chairs, doled out at one per patient in the old hospital, families advocated two extra sleeping surfaces per room. The clever solution was a 6-foot-long upholstered window seat in each room with a trundle bed stored below. The vivid color palette in corridors and lounges, also requested by families, isn't just a mood-lifter; research has shown that the bright hues also stimulate the brain.
Color schemes, signage and even furniture convey a playful spirit. "Where there's a bench, it's a wave bench, curved like a caterpillar," says Urbach. "A chair in the dental waiting room looks like a tooth. We're doing everything to surprise and amuse and instruct and entertain."
Right: The ambulatory-care waiting area.
If guests ranked hospitals like hotels, Children's might earn five-star honors. The spacious patient rooms, each with bathroom and space for parents, are arrayed on exterior walls, with double-thick drywall partitions from hallways. (To accommodate siblings, 10 percent have two beds.) Wireless pagers and patient sensors will emit silent signals. It's all part of the hospital's commitment to a quiet building. Research has shown that it not only aids healing, but improves staff job satisfaction, too.
"Even the wheels of our carts are designed to be quiet," notes Gessner. He pulls open a cupboard door along the corridor to demonstrate another noise-reducer: a pass-through serving door to each patient room that allows meals and linens to be exchanged without disturbing the family inside. The system also limits infections.