CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Inside MetroHealth's new critical care unit, it is easy to feel like you've taken a wrong turn and somehow ended up in an upscale hotel suite.
Interspersed among nurses stations and glass-walled patient rooms are sleek benches framed by sound-dampening wood panels. Walls are covered in colorful artwork. And in one corner, a waiting room with floor-to-ceiling windows offers views of Cleveland's skyline.
"Our sense is it should be bright, it should be open, it should have a lot of access to daylight," said Walter Jones, director of MetroHealth Medical Center's campus transformation. He also noted that the new critical care pavilion will enhance MetroHealth's capacity to handle critically injured patients in case of an incident at the Republican National Convention or other major event.
"No one wishes that will happen, but if does we now have an ability to respond much more effectively than we would have in the past," Jones said.
The two-floor, $82 million pavilion will open to patients on Tuesday, six days before the start of a convention expected to bring more than 50,000 visitors to Cleveland. MetroHealth, which operates a level one trauma center, would be a focal point in responding to any incident requiring treatment for a large number of people.
While timed to be ready for the RNC, the critical care pavilion is also a jumping off point for a broader transformation of MetroHealth's West 25th Street campus. Hospital executives are examining options for replacing the main hospital building as well as other upgrades to the campus.
MetroHealth is working with county leaders to finalize the scope of the project and secure financing. While many of the details are unknown, the critical care pavilion offers a window into what will come next.
The pavilion, which sits on an existing building, represents a vast modernization of MetroHealth's facilities, most of which date back decades, if not significantly longer. For example, the health care system still uses a 1,500-gallon wood water tank that has stood in the same spot for nearly 100 years. Many of its existing patient rooms are not built for modern equipment and offer little privacy.
The rooms in the critical care pavilion are designed to be more efficient and comfortable for patients and caregivers. Each is fitted with a large bathroom and flat-screen television. And outside, in the hallway between rooms, computer stations give doctors and nurses easy access to patient information and updates.
The unit also has plenty of areas for family members, inside the rooms and out, to stretch, rest, and try to comfort sick relatives. "People are waking up here in an environment they did not go to sleep in," Jones said. "Having a family member nearby when someone awakens is enormously important."