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| Entering the C.S. Mott Open House from UMHealthSystem’s Flickr Photo Stream |
We attended the Open House for the new C.S. Mott Hospital on Sunday. It was great to see the new facility and know that it is there if we ever need it. We kept joking with my daughter that we wanted this to be our only trip to the new hospital (hopefully she doesn’t feel the need to say goodbye to the old hospital either). We have had 7 visits to Mott in the last 14 months. Nothing serious, but we would still rather not be visiting the hospital.
In order to keep hospital parking available for patients and families, they had suggested parking in one of the medical school lots (Ann, Catherine, or Glenn St) and were running shuttle buses from the Biomedical Sciences Research Building at the corner of Ann and Zina Pitcher to C.S. Mott Hospital. While the distance is easily walkable, we decided to take the bus. They had events and activities setup inside BSRB. There was no line for the bus, so we decided to save these activities for later. When we arrived at the hospital, a volunteer came aboard to welcome us and give us a little “lay of the land” speech.
We arrived at 10:15, about 15 minute into the event. There were tons of volunteers but they were also still determining how to organize certain things. As we were on the bus, they were using the radio to discuss what to do with returning passengers and where they should be dropped off. They were also figuring out how to best run the elevators. They decided to send everyone directly to the 12th floor and then have the elevators make stops on the way down. This worked well to only have the elevators going in one direction. However, they had a treasure hunt which was designed the other way. I had to convince my daughter it was ok to do it backwards. The prize stop was on the 2nd floor as you exited, so it did not matter.
We were really impressed with the new hospital. It seems much larger than the old hospital. The emergency room is huge compared to the old pediatric emergency room. When the new hospital opens, you will bring your child directly to the C.S. Mott Emergency Room which will have its own valet parking like the main hospital. In the past you went to the regular emergency room for triage and were transferred to the pediatric wing. They are developing policies for when a child and adult come in to the emergency room together. The outpatient surgery floor is also larger than the previous outpatient surgery and seems to afford more privacy. When my daughter had her tonsils out, there were just curtains separating you. With the new hospital there are side walls (and front curtains).
The view from the 12th floor patient rooms was spectacular. The rooms are relatively large. However, I was surprised to find that the toilets were high. I would have expected them to be designed for children or at least at a normal height. Every room has a foldout chair or sofa so that a parent or even both parents can stay the night. And there seemed to be plenty of room for them to fold out.
My daughter was disappointed that the indoor game day playground was not open for use during the event. They are still finishing the playground.
The Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital is located on the 9th floor. This floor includes birthing suites. I had my daughter at St Joseph Mercy, so I don’t know what UofMs prior birthing suites were liked. At Von Voigtlander, you will stay in the same room from arrival through discharge. Compared to St Joseph Mercy, I felt the rooms were smaller than the birthing rooms, but larger than the room I had during my stay at St Joseph Mercy.
They have done a great job of incorporating the patients into the hospital. There is framed art work by patients. The NICU features pictures of success stories – a small photograph from the NICU and a recent photograph of the child. However, I felt that the hospital lacked some of the warmth of the current hospital. For example, outpatient surgery has a large undersea wall mural contributed to by patients. My hope is that the hospital will gradually add these touches over time.
The tour took longer than I thought it would so we decided to skip the activities at BSRB. Good thing I hadn’t told my daughter that there was a bounce house since it was inside BSRB.
The new hospital is scheduled to open on December 4, 2011.
Did you attend the Open House? What were your thoughts.
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