HOSPITAL ADDITION UNVEILED

With its pastel decor, wide corridors and glass-walled, sunlit, spacious waiting room, it doesn't look like a hospital emergency room.

In fact, Southeast Missouri Hospital's new emergency services area looks more like a professional office than a trauma center.

The look is intentional in the emergency services area and throughout the rest of the new Clinical Services Building, hospital officials say. Gone is the dull, antiseptic look of the traditional hospital.

"The idea of the color schemes on the walls and floors was to get away from the traditional sterile environment that a person normally associates with a hospital and make it more calming, more friendly and comforting to the patients and the families of our patients," said Jim Wente, the hospital's administrator.

On Friday, the news media and other invited guests were given a tour of the new, five-story brick and glass building. The public will get its chance Sunday at an open house scheduled for 2-5 p.m.

Prior to that, at 1 p.m. Sunday, hospital officials will officially dedicate the Clinical Services Building with a cornerstone ceremony.

The 105,000-square-foot structure is the hospital's 12th and largest expansion. Since 1928, Southeast has grown from a 90-bed acute care hospital to a 281-bed regional medical center.

The hospital serves about half a million people living within a 100-mile radius of Cape Girardeau, officials said.

The $19 million, Clinical Services Building is the centerpiece of a three-phase, five-year, $30 million expansion program for Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Hospital officials said the building increases the square footage under roof at the hilltop complex by more than 40 percent.

The cost of the new building was borne largely through a tax-exempt bond issue. But more than $1.5 million in funding for the project was raised through a capital campaign.

The hospital will open three of the five levels next week. Those three encompass emergency services, the surgery area, and the LifeBeat air ambulance service.

Emergency services takes up the building's ground floor, while the first floor is devoted to surgery, including outpatient or "same-day" procedures. The top floor houses a dispatching room and offices for the LifeBeat crew.

A metal, heated helicopter pad sits atop the building. The pad can be moved in the event of future hospital expansion.

From the helicopter, air ambulance crews can transport a patient to surgery or the emergency room via elevators big enough to accommodate a small car.

The new LifeBeat quarters will allow for improved response time, and allow patients to be transported more quickly to the emergency room or surgery, hospital officials said.

Emergency services and the LifeBeat service will begin operations Thursday, and the surgery unit will be put into operation Friday, Wente said.

Dr. Michael Kolda, director of emergency services, is enthused about his new surroundings.

"This was designed for the ease of patient flow and efficiency," said Kolda. "The other (the old emergency room) was a make-do situation."

At 17,800 square feet, the new emergency services area is about three times larger than the old facility. It has 18 treatment rooms and its own X-ray room. Two of the rooms are reserved for sick children. The rooms are decorated with wallpaper depicting a jungle scene featuring elephants, giraffes and lions. "It's less intimidating," explained Kolda.

The 55-seat waiting room, complete with an automatic bank teller machine, bears no resemblance to the tiny cramped quarters of the emergency waiting room.

The major treatment room features special X-ray equipment that allows for full body views without moving or turning a critically injured patient.

In addition to acute care, the emergency services area has a chest pain center and a minor care section.

Kolda said the hospital annually provides emergency room treatment to about 28,000 people. About 500 people a month, half of them children, are treated for minor injuries and illnesses.

The building's first floor provides an additional 30,000 square feet of surgery space, more than doubling the size of existing surgery facilities.

The building has four new, large operating rooms, bringing to 10 the number of major operating rooms at Southeast.

One of the new operating rooms is equipped with ultraviolet lighting for use during total joint replacement surgeries.

The special lighting makes for a "more sterile environment," explained Lois Scott, operating room supervisor.

She said doctors and operating room personnel have to wear protective cream so their skin won't be burned by the ultraviolet lighting.

The temperature in the operating rooms is kept at around 62 to 66 degrees, she said, a fact clearly evident to visitors as they toured the surgical area Friday.

The surgery unit includes "secondary" recovery rooms for same-day surgery. About 30 to 50 surgeries are performed daily at Southeast Hospital. About 60 to 70 percent are done on an outpatient basis, officials said.

An outpatient surgery waiting room accommodates more than 60 people and overlooks Capaha Park. The "primary" recovery area can accommodate 14 patients, twice the number that could be accommodated previously.

The building is outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, all of it expensive. A single operating room table costs $35,000 to $40,000, while an operating room light costs $10,000 to $12,000, Scott said.