Hundreds of people toured Douglas County’s first hospital Aug.
9.
Set to open Aug. 20, the $147-million Sky Ridge Medical Center
in the HealthONE network will debut some of the latest and greatest
in technology.
“We’ve had the opportunity, by virtue of being a new hospital,
to go out there after the latest and greatest in methods and
technology,” said Watson Sheehan, hospital spokeswoman.
The hospital has a system that integrates radiology and
cardiology with digital images. Pictures can be wired between the
radiologist and physician, who could be at home, in the office or
in the hospital looking at the same picture at the same time as the
radiologist. The radiologist and doctor can discuss treatment
without passing film back and forth with the chance of losing
X-rays.
“It’s a new, high-tech and very effective way of dealing with
patient well-being,” Watson Sheehan said.
Going to the hospital at Sky Ridge is going to be a little like
going to the grocery store. Patients, medications and nurses will
each have bands with bar codes to ensure the right nurse is giving
the right medication to the right patient at the right
time.
Nurses will be more accessible with new phones they will have
with them at all times. At Sky Ridge, nurses will be equipped with
computers on carts they can take with them to each patient’s
room.
“It really speeds up the communication process and treatment of
the patient,” Sheehan said.
At Sky Ridge, cancer patients will visit the outpatient cancer
center that overlooks the hospital’s healing garden.
When Sky Ridge opens after 15 months of construction, it will
have 106 beds with enough unfinished space to add 60 beds when
demand warrants. On opening day, 250 employees will treat patients
with plans to have 450 on board by the end of the year.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Sheehan said.
The attached medical building is 100 percent leased and some
doctors started practicing there this summer. About half of the
doctors have already moved in, the rest will move in by
October.
Sky Ridge has left the clinical atmosphere behind with stone
fireplaces, leather couches and chairs and private rooms. Amenity
suites with jacuzzi tubs, a private chef and robes are available
for an extra $500 a day.
“We’ve tried to create a beautiful setting for healing and
comfort with the latest in technology and the best professionals in
the field,” Sheehan said.
Parker residents Hanny Vanmunster and Dorothy Oxborrow visited
the hospital. They said they are excited to have a hospital nearer
their home and are excited about another hospital opening in Parker
in spring 2004.
“If you had to go to a hospital this would be a nice place to
go,” Vanmunster said.
“Yeah, it’s a far cry from how they used to be. Look at the
views out there,” Oxborrow said.