Health Compass Newsletter

Growing from 55,000 to 182,000 square feet means CMH will have a whole lot more to offer

If you have been a patient at CMH, you may have noticed a few things:

• The Emergency Department is compact, and its nine rooms are often full.
• Surgical patients or patients from the Emergency Department who need imaging are wheeled down public hallways, in full view of other hospital visitors.
• Family waiting areas, the chapel and cafeteria
  are small and do not always have room for everyone who wants to use them. Patient rooms are also modest, and some have shared bathrooms.
• Location-wise, the hospital is close to the Columbia River and in a tsunami zone. A tsunami may result from a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.
• CMH is busy and offers quite a number of services in a limited space — but we have run out of room to grow in the facility we have now.

What is included in the expansion?

We get a lot of questions from community members about what the BuildCMH Expansion Project is bringing to Astoria. CMH will remain a 25-bed hospital, so many inquiries have centered on what changes will be made when the hospital more than triples in size. Here’s what you can expect.

Emergency Department
The current Emergency Department (ED) includes eight patient rooms and one triage room, with a total of 4,500 square feet. The new ED will have up to 24 treatment areas over 14,600 square feet.

Surgical services
Right now, our surgical services team works out of three operating rooms and one procedure room and has seven recovery rooms for patients. Those make up a total of 11,600 square feet.

The new hospital will have up to five operating rooms, two procedure rooms, one dedicated interventional radiology suite and a whopping 19 recovery rooms — equaling nearly 28,000 square feet. We will more than double the space available for surgical procedures and recovery.

Imaging
Our Imaging Department currently includes MRI, CT, x-ray and ultrasound capabilities in 5,800 square feet.

We are doubling that space to 11,938 square feet in the expansion, with a dedicated CT scanner in the ED, more mammography and ultrasound devices, and a room for imaging procedures, as well as an interventional radiology suite.

Patient experience
The chapel, family waiting areas and cafeteria take up just 3,750 square feet now. In the expansion, there will be four times that space (16,500 square feet) made up of a larger chapel and café, private corridors to give patients dignity, and outdoor terraces and waiting areas.

Inpatient rooms
Inpatient room sizes will drastically increase. All rooms will house only one patient. They will be located on the third floor and offer views of the Columbia River or green spaces outside. Every room will also have a private bathroom and shower.

An observation unit, including four rooms (in addition to the hospital’s 25 inpatient rooms), will increase access for same-day surgery patients and those who will be in the hospital for less than 48 hours. These rooms will free up other inpatient rooms for patients requiring longer stays.

Caregiver amenities
Over the past few decades, caregiver spaces were reduced to make room for more patient services. In the expanded hospital, nearly 6,000 square feet will be dedicated for caregiver use only. There will be private lounges, locker rooms and lactation rooms, with a respite area included on every floor. Caregivers may also access outdoor terraces that are exclusively for their use.

Built-in resiliency measures
Because the hospital is located in a tsunami inundation zone, the expansion is being constructed with resiliency in mind. A deep pile foundation and steel structure will anchor the building to the ground, and the third and fourth floors will be able to accommodate up to 1,900 people as a refuge in case of a natural disaster.

In addition, critical infrastructure, generators and the helipad will be located on the roof, away from any potential hazards near the ground. This will allow the hospital to continue to function even in an emergency.

Additional features

In addition to the features mentioned in the article, we also have plans for:

• Additional telemedicine services with OHSU
• Expanded lab draw services
• Improved parking
• Increased access to advanced imaging with new CT and MRI machines
• Increased mammography services
• Inpatient dialysis
• New obstetric suites, with private labor tubs in each room
• Robotic surgery
• Enhanced security

Categories: BuildCMH Expansion Project