Health Signs - Summer 2012 - (Page 8)

CEO Letter Caring for a Growing Community From emergency medicine to joint therapy, Washington Hospital keeps pace with the needs of Alameda County The 37,000-square-foot Central utility Plant now supplies all the necessary utilities to existing facilities and will support all functions of Washington Hospital’s campus of the future. Local residents, former patients and staff members toured the new Center for Joint replacement building this past may. Nancy Farber Chief executive Officer During the past year, I have talked about our Facilities Master Plan for Washington Hospital Healthcare System and the two important buildings that have been under construction during this first phase. I have also discussed our plans for Phase II, which is the Morris Hyman Critical Care Pavilion that will house our much needed, expanded Emergency Room and Critical Care units. Today, I’m very happy to tell you we’ve made great progress and have completed Phase I of the plan. The Central Utility Plant is up and running, and our new facility, called The Center for Joint Replacement, opened to patients in June. We have also continued the planning of Phase II of our Facilities Master Plan. Our construction plans for the new, three-story 250,000-square-foot Morris Hyman Critical Care Pavilion are undergoing final review with the state, and construction on that building is scheduled to begin in 2013. When Washington Hospital opened in 1958, we served a community of 18,000 people; today we serve more than 350,000 residents and we anticipate this to increase over the next several years. The Washington Township Health Care District Board of Directors several years ago developed a long-range master plan to meet this anticipated future demand and California’s seismic safety requirements. The Central Utility Plant, which opened late last year, will have more than enough capacity to support all functions of the hospital’s campus as it grows to meet future demand. It will provide power to our facilities during an earthquake or other emergency for up to seven days, and it is designed to meet the highest energy efficiency and emission standards. It is quiet, clean and safe, and it will save the district 480,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year. The new Center for Joint Replacement is an innovatively designed building that houses our new Institute for Joint Restoration and Research. HealthGrades, an independent health care outcomes rating company, recently awarded Washington Hospital the Joint Replacement Excellence Award, placing us among the top 5 percent in the nation for the sixth year in a row and as the best hospital for joint replacement in the Bay Area. The Morris Hyman Critical Care Center will answer this community’s need for expanded emergency and critical care facilities. Last year, more than 50,000 patients were treated in our emergency room, the second busiest in Alameda County— exceeded only by Highland Hospital in Oakland. Our new emergency room will be approximately four times as large as our current emergency room, which will make us better equipped to meet the needs of the District residents. The new emergency room will also position us so that we can apply to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors for designation as a trauma center. The new Critical Care/Intensive Care units will have 48 beds compared with our current capacity of 28 beds. All of the rooms in the new building will be private and larger in size, providing space for lifesaving equipment, more room for doctors and nurses to perform medical procedures in the patient’s room, and for patients to have greater privacy. Despite our limited capacity at times, we strive to ensure that we meet the needs of our community every day and that our patients receive the best care possible. I will continue to update you as we progress in moving forward with Phase II of our longrange Facilities Master Plan. All of us at Washington Hospital are dedicated to making sure our residents have access to the very best care possible. With your help and support, we will continue to meet that goal. We Want to Hear from You! If you have questions about the topic of this column or about other WHHS services, please contact Community relations at 510-791-3417 or visit whhs.com. Investing in the health of the community. Health Signs is published quarterly as a service to our friends and neighbors by mcmurry for Washington Township Health Care District. material in Health Signs is obtained from a wide range of medical scientists and health care authorities. If you have any concerns about specific items that appear in Health Signs, please consult your personal physician regarding their effects on your individual health. © mcmurry 2012. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please write to: Health Signs editor, Washington Hospital Healthcare System, Community relations Department, 2000 mowry Ave., Fremont, CA 94538-1716. If you wish to have your name removed from our mailing list and other consumer lists like it, write to the mail Preference Service, Direct marketing Association, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008. Nancy Farber, Chief Executive Officer; Clayton Warren, Executive Editor; Catlin Valles, Senior Writer. Volume 24, Number 3. 39 8 Summer 2012 http://www.whhs.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Health Signs - Summer 2012

Health Signs - Summer 2012
High-tech care: WHHS is on the cutting-edge when it comes to technology
Learn what the future holds for Washington Hospital Healthcare System
Pediatricians at WHHS are working to give kids a healthy start in life
Find out how to tell if it’s heartburn or something more serious

Health Signs - Summer 2012