UPMC East, featuring private rooms, expected to open next July
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The new UPMC East hospital in Monroeville is scheduled to open in July 2012. -
Mark Sevco, president, UPMC East, shows a hallway in the new hospital. -
Workers continue to build in the family area on one of the floors of the new UPMC East hospital.
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An average of 90 people a day travel from Monroeville and surrounding communities to receive care at a UPMC hospital in Oakland or Shadyside.
By this time next year, the Parkway East trip to the city could be a thing of the past.
"Monroeville and the east suburbs could almost turn into a mini-Oakland," Sean Logan, vice president of community relations for UPMC, said during a tour of the facility on Tuesday.
Construction on the new UPMC East hospital is well under way, and opening is slated for July 2.
PG VIDEO: UPMC EASTThe hospital is on a 17-acre lot at the site of the former Al Monzo's Palace Inn, near Business Route 22 and Route 48 in Monroeville.
The 156-bed facility will have all private rooms and will offer everything from outpatient testing to cancer treatment. It will be LEED-certified; it has huge windows that let in natural light, limiting the need for artificial lighting. The north- and south-facing windows will let in light all day long and reduce energy expenses by 18 percent.
All patient rooms have large windows, and 64 rooms will have patient lifts, which help move patients from stretchers or wheelchairs into bed, and help to prevent injuries to hospital staff and patients, said Joseph T. Badalich, UPMC East project director.
The bathroom floors are made of an epoxy resin to prevent leaks and ease sanitizing. All surfaces in the hospital will be "easily wipeable," Mr. Badalich said. "No nooks and crannies.
"This whole room is designed on ease of cleaning," he said.
The hospital will also be paperless and have wireless Internet connectivity -- doctors and nurses will use computers on wheels to access a patient's information. Wi-Fi will be available to patients and visitors, Mr. Badalich said.
A 460-space parking garage will be free for two hours and $2 a day after that, Mr. Badalich said.
There will be an emergency department but no trauma center; a helicopter pad on-site will transfer patients to trauma centers in Pittsburgh. The rooms in the emergency departments all will have transparent glass doors. With the flick of a switch, though, an electromagnetic field will charge particles in the door that go from clear to opaque, eliminating the need for curtains, Mr. Badalich said.
First Published August 18, 2011 5:04 am
