Photo Credit: Jad Ryherd Photography

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Patient room with bedside patient touch technology

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Patient and visitor lounge

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Nurses' station

More than 150 dignitaries and community leaders attended a ribbon-cutting in celebration of the opening of Phase One of the South Pavilion expansion project.

Key people involved in the Hospital's success shared remarks, including:

• Steve Lipstein, president and CEO of BJC HealthCare
• Sandra VanTrease, group president of BJC HealthCare
• Dr. Phil Orellana, chief of staff
• St. Peters Mayor Len Pagano
• Mary Sulzer, RN, on the new surgical unit

Phase One of the expansion added:

• Two patient care floors with a capacity for 64 patient beds
• A new inpatient pharmacy double the size of the previous one

The private rooms are larger and feature:

• A family comfort area
• Canted beds (placed at an angle)  to increase the patient's view and patient visibility for the nurses
• Patient touch technology available at the bedside for viewing patient education programs
• Electronic documentation for clinicians
• MedProx (the latest in medication administration)

Eighteen patient beds will be available for surgical and orthopedic patients beginning September 1, 2009.

The project was completed 35 days ahead of schedule despite having the wettest year on record. The schedule reduction contributed to the project's estimated $1 million in cost savings. The construction team logged more than 120,000 hours over 18 months, and reported zero lost work days and no citations or violations during an unannounced OSHA inspection.