by Tracy Ostroff
Associate Editor

Summary: As a new-market hospital, Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, Mansfield, Tex., is at the vanguard of medical technology. The $134-million, 312,110-square-foot facility serves a rapidly growing suburban community just south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex with a digital infrastructure that connects patients with an extended network of health-care providers. The upgrades present a significant improvement in patient care and treatment and opportunities for real-time diagnostic results, consultations, and education.

“There are plenty of ways we try to keep doctors informed, and my estimation is anytime you can do that, then you are taking care of the patient in a better way,” says RTKL Principal and Project Manager Harold Annis. “If we can make the doctor look good, the patient is going to be happy and the doctor is going to be pleased with the facility.”

RTKL specified digital technical equipment for all the modalities, including ultrasound, nuclear medicine, CT scans, and MRIs. They’ve also implemented digital mammography. No longer will a woman have to wait anxiously for her films to be developed. “The patient can leave immediately from the exam room back to life and forget about the experience,” Annis says.

Permanent record
All digital images are stored in a permanent electronic patient file. For example, the architects installed physiological monitoring systems hooked up through a central computer that traces the information from the patient back to his or her personal file. “If that patient comes into the emergency department in the middle of the night, the next morning the primary care physician can log into the system and see reports from the ER visit, the heart trace that was taken the night before, and the radiographic films without going into the hospital. Again, that primary physician is immediately informed and easily can access all the information he or she needs to take care of the patient.”

Digital amenities also extend to a fully integrated operating room. Booms by the surgical tables hold equipment. Flat panel TVs hang from the ceiling so the screen is immediately in front of the physician, rather than the traditional side-cart position. The doctor also can control devices within the OR, including the intensity of the surgical lights.

RTKL installed a camera on the surgical light that can transmit the signal and images through streaming video to the referring physician or to any other provider for an immediate consultation and two-way communication. For laparoscopic surgery, outside physicians have a view through the endoscope. That information is also captured for the record.

Patient-centric amenities
The patient tower is designed to promote caregiver efficiency and patient privacy. The elliptical, saw-tooth-shaped bed unit houses 36 private rooms per floor and is designed to reduce nurse travel distance and noise levels in the corridors and maximize sightlines to patient rooms. Decentralized nurse work stations with laptops connected to the hospital-wide wireless system are between every two rooms. Care providers can easily update notes in the patient record on the password-protected computer. That information, Annis says, is immediately available to the physician who referred the patient.

The wireless system the staff uses to update the computers is also available to patients and visitors. Flat-panel TVs offer a modern way to deliver entertainment and patient education. Resort-style bedding, guest sofa beds for family overnight accommodations, and on-demand dining all contribute to the patient experience.

If the patients need to be monitored but are not very sick, Annis says, their signal follows them throughout the hospital. A patient on a cardiac watch, for example, could take a walk to the solarium, visiting spaces, or cafeteria. If a patient is taken to the imaging department, the signal is still being picked up and there is a constant feed.

Technologically ahead
“I think RTKL kind of drove the technology to another level over the original client expectations,” Annis says. We were able to save enough money through bidding and convinced the client, which wasn’t a hard argument to make, to bring all this digital technology into the project and still stay well under the bottom line that was approved for equipment. It was a win for us, the client, and the patient.”

Annis notes that the technology is changing so fast that by the time they completed the project, they probably altered the specifications two or three times over two years. The digital technology, Annis says, is a “significant cost increase, but it’s a really significant improvement on the process in the hospital.”

“I see the best improvement, of course, to the patient,” Annis says. “That’s most important to me. I always like to say that when I build a hospital, I want to be proud of it and I want most patients to walk out of it when they’re done.”