Comfort and safety, for both patients and employees, were the focus of Memorial Medical Center's new, 22-room medical-surgical unit.
Memorial held an open house Friday for the $5 million unit.
The Illinois Department of Public Health will inspect the unit Monday, after which hospital officials hope they can start admitting patients to the new unit, to be known as "3-G."
The unit not only adds 22 beds to the 314 staffed medical-surgical beds already at Memorial, but also 45 jobs.
"The hospital is not only offering patients a better environment, but also additional employment, which is a benefit for the whole community," said Donna Crompton, director of nursing operations and informatics at Memorial Medical Center.
"All the rooms are private, which provides safety for our patients and increases patient satisfaction," she added.
Jennifer Holmes, nurse manager for 3-G, pointed to a variety of additional patient safety features.
"All rooms are designed with the bathrooms opening up on the headwall, so a patient has a handrail at top of the bed," she said. "They can use this handrail to follow along until they reach that bathroom."
The bathroom also has automatic sensors, so the patient or the nurse helping the patient does not have to worry about flipping a light switch.
What patients will probably notice and nurses already have seen is the new style of flooring, said Deidra Glisson, director of nursing operations.
The floors are no-wax and were made to reduce noise and lessen leg fatigue for nurses.
"For a nurse that is on her feet all day, this really helps," Glisson said.
Two rooms are designed for bariatric patients - patients undergoing surgery for weight loss -- and five have ceiling-mounted lifts to help employees lift patients.
"These lifts are better for the patients and nurses both," said Crompton.
Along with the lifts, the doorways and furniture are also larger in the bariatric patient rooms.
Other features in 3-G include:
Todd Smith can be reached at 788-1532.
