Board tours new Boardman hospital

All of the patient rooms will be private in the 77 million facility.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- For months, residents and travelers have watched the first new full-service hospital in the Mahoning Valley in 50 years rise from the ground.
Now it's slated opening is just more than four months away.
"It's 131 days," said Genie Aubel president of St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center.
Humility of Mary Health Partners officials showcased the project's progress to hospital board members Friday during a hard-hat tour.
Robert Shroder, HMHP president and chief executive, said the project is "on time and on budget."
Most of the new facility at Market Street and McClurg Road is slated to open Aug. 1. The remainder will open shortly thereafter.
The smell of fresh paint filled the under-construction facility, with signs posted warning passers-through to be wary.
Wires poke through walls in patient rooms and cut-out notches indicate where fixtures and equipment will go.
"We're happy to be bringing a new full-service hospital down here closer to where most of the population lives," she said Friday after the tour.
'Wow effect'
The seven-floor, 77 million facility incorporates all private patient rooms.
"We had focus groups come in during the planning with an outside facilitator to run the groups, asking people what they wanted to see in a new hospital," she said. "We could not get them to say private rooms."
When the facilitator asked their views of private rooms, focus group members indicated it was beyond their expectations.
"So I think it's really the wow effect," Aubel said.
An open-visiting-hours policy also came from those sessions.
"The nurses will wear all white uniforms to show professionalism and pride in nursing," she said.
Focus groups indicated they liked the white because it makes nurses clearly identifiable, she said. Nurses at St. E's in Youngstown wear various-colored scrubs depending upon their work area. Kathy Cook, director of nursing, said studies also have show that the traditional white uniform carries credibility. Patients trust what a nurse is saying more so when he or she wears white.
A nurse at St. E's in Youngstown hopes to work in the new hospital and has been wearing her all-white uniform.
"She had four people compliment her on wearing white," Cook said.
And that was just in the first hour of her shift.
Layout of facility
When it opens, the first floor will offer the emergency room, cardio-diagnostic area, gift shop, laboratory and administrative offices. The second floor will have a conference center, two-story central atrium, critical care unit, kitchen and cafeteria.
The third through sixth floors mirror one another with 24 patient beds each. The 20-bed seventh floor is the pediatric level.
Each room also features a window, allowing natural light to be part of the healing process, hospital officials said.
The entire hospital embodies the Disney concept, separating hospital employees, visitors and patients. The idea is modeled after the theme parks.
Windows line hallways, brightening the area, and color schemes, floor designs and views outside the building were chosen to orient visitors, aiding them in finding their destination within the building, the project's architect has said.