Thursday, October 27, 2005

Oakwood enhances care

Hospital puts $110 million into state-of-the-art addition that offers heart, surgery patients star treatment.

By Eric Lacy / The Detroit News

Steve Perez / The Detroit News Dr. Samir Dabbous oversees one of the second floor surgery rooms. The facility's first floor heart and vascular center is expected to open Nov. 14, with the surgery pavilion to follow a week later. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

DEARBORN -- A comfortable, state-of-the-art and hassle-free environment is what heart patients and their families can expect when Oakwood Hospital's $110 million Surgical Pavilion and Heart and Vascular Center opens next month.

The sleek, glass and brick structure has private patient rooms with wood-like laminate flooring and electric controls for window blinds, a visitor resource center with Web access, valet parking and a landscaped garden patio.

Amenities include a facility-wide computer monitoring system that will allow most patients to remain in their private rooms from the time of surgery to the time of release, said Dr. Thomas Siegel, Oakwood's department of surgery chairman.

Ample space and equipment in the hospital's hotel-like private patient rooms will help medical professionals work more efficiently. Rooms are large and well-equipped, so a doctor or nurse can prepare for an incoming patient in the same room in which patients are preparing to go home.

"Tasks can now be done in parallel compared to before, when everything was done in a series," Siegel said. "The whole facility should give patients and their families a sense of confidence."

The expansion was necessary because Oakwood does more than 900 open-heart surgeries annually -- second in the region only to Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak. The pavilion and heart and vascular center are part of Oakwood's $200 million master plan, to be completed in several years.

Among highlights of the surgery and heart areas:

• 17 surgical suites equipped to handle complicated procedures in the areas of cardiology, orthopedics, neurology, oncology and gynecology.

• 16 private patient rooms that allow a patient to remain with the same healthcare team from admission through recovery and discharge.

• Real-time teleconferencing between surgical suites and other hospitals.

• A surgical lab with swivel-based machines that don't get in the way of medical personnel, and the most up-to-date lighting technology.

Construction of the hospital addition took more than three years. The new building sits on the campus of Oakwood's hospital and medical center, 18101 Oakwood Blvd.

The addition's first-floor heart and vascular center is expected to open to patients on Nov. 14, followed by the surgery pavilion a week later.

Frequent visitors of Oakwood, like the Rev. Alfred Davis Jr. of Ecorse, are buoyed by the hospital's commitment to improving facilities and services. He often visits hospitalized church members at Oakwood. The heart and vascular center should make a person's stay much more pleasant, Davis said.

"It will be nice for patients to have all their needs taken care of in once place," Davis said. "This seems to be a place that will truly take care of both the patient and their family."

Yvonne Castellanos also is encouraged by the news of some hospital improvements. Castellanos, also of Ecorse, visited her aunt at the hospital Tuesday.

"Oakwood is always trying to get better," Castellanos said. "And they always seem to find ways to make things easier for patients and families."

You can reach Eric Lacy at (734) 462-2674 or elacy@detnews.com.