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Caring outside the box

Not just thinking but also caring outside the box more than applies to the planning that went on for the neuro intensive care unit that opened in Emory Hospital in February. The team of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, even the families of former patients, that provided input for the design envisioned a space very different from traditional hospital ICUs. Our new space brings nurses and patients’ families close to the patients, 24/7, to improve care and promote healing.
     In this issue, you’ll read about how the environment in 2D ICU is transforming how we deliver health care. But the transformation extends beyond just one unit. In fact, the Woodruff Health Sciences Center is in the midst of the most extensive plan to re-cast our physical plant in Emory history, incorporating and even pioneering the latest insights in evidence-based design. Already we have invested almost $580 million to create 2.1 million square feet of needed clinical, research, and education space. Several vital new projects are on the drawing boards or in development, with some coming online in the next few months.
     For example, a new medical education building, the first permanent home for the School of Medicine on the Emory campus, is slated to open soon. The building will facilitate a new curriculum with auditoriums, small group classrooms, and a simulation lab for teaching the newest techniques. An even larger initiative, the construction of a new Emory Clinic, has been enabled with a $240 million gift from the Woodruff Foundation. This new facility—being designed by HKS in association with the planning firm Ayers Saint Gross—will provide a setting for integrating research, education, and care around an ideal patient-centered health care experience.
     On other parts of our campus, a new public health building will provide innovative new space for our growing public health programs and provide a central home for burgeoning global health initiatives across campus, including the new Global Health Institute. At Yerkes, the architectural firm, CUH2A, has begun designing a 13,000-square-foot building for clinical veterinary medical, research, and administration. Construction on an imaging center on the Wesley Woods campus starts in May.
     Also at Emory Crawford Long, the new 5,000-square-foot Center for Health Discovery and Well-Being is nearing completion. The only center of its type in the nation, its goal is to tackle disease before it starts, enabling interdisciplinary teams of investigators to consider and address such risks as inherited disease, environmental factors, and problematic personal health and lifestyle choices.
     Why are we doing all this? Because we care. Our mission is to make people healthy. We cannot let our programs and staff —not to mention our patients and their families—be walled off by worn-out facilities and outworn practices. By caring outside the box, we can transform health and healing for the 21st century.

         
   
 
 
   
 

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