The nearly 1-million-square-foot Paula and Joseph C. “Rusty” Walter III Tower set to open later this month features 366 beds and 18 operating rooms, including four hybrid ORs that combine advanced medical imaging devices such as intraoperative MRI to allow surgeons to more quickly adjust their surgical plans. It will have 14 heart catheterization labs, three intensive care floors with all-private rooms, six acute care floors and a VIP suite.
This new tower at Houston Methodist is the cap to a healthcare investment blitz across the Houston region — a clear defense of its reputation for delivering the most advanced care available in one of the most competitive healthcare markets in the country.
The tower itself ties into five different buildings of the medical campus on seven different levels. It has a helipad that gives emergency personnel direct access to the OR, cath lab and intensive care units. It has six emergency generators sitting on the roof that have the capability to supply emergency electricity for most of the medical campus and massive flood doors to protect against the likes of weather like Hurricane Harvey. And finally, it has the Barbara and President George H.W. Bush Atrium—"the living room of the campus," Sanders calls it—which features an iconic and recently restored 1963 “Extending Arms of Christ” mosaic which was relocated from the Fannin Street entrance.
All these design elements, Sanders said, were to ensure a strong and seamless connection between the tower and the medical center—and ultimately the community.
"You've got to be competitive in terms of the quality patient experience and the quality of the procedure platforms, particularly when the kind of specialties we do at our academic medical center are the highest, most acute, highest patient care you can find in Houston," Sanders said. "So it's incumbent on us to have the best tools to deliver that service."
Original article (written by Tina Reed) was published by Fierce Healthcare on August 15, 2018. Read the full article here
