With the need of expanding an existing facility for University of Chicago Medicine, a brand new hospital - the Center for Care and Discovery (CCD) was designed and built. We had the opportunity to visit the CCD with accompany of Sheila and our hosts Debbie and Susan. The hospital is relatively a new and advanced one compared to those we visited before in this semester.
The Center for Care and Discovery was designed by Rafael Vinõly. It has 10 stories with a building area of 111484 sq.m. It is basically a rigid rectangular box with floors stacking together. The most impressive part is the sky lobby on the seventh floor which divide the whole building into two parts - top floors for outpatient/surgery and floors below the sky lobby for research and inpatient (several floors of this part are shelled for future expansion).
The space of the sky lobby on the seventh floor is really remarkable. I would say it is more like an airport rather than a hospital lobby if I didn't know at first.
It houses reception (not the desk in center), waiting areas (as well as family waiting rooms), a chapel, cafeteria, hoteling offices, and other public spaces. It is very unique to lift the reception part into the air, by doing that, the sky lobby provides visitors with a spectacular view of the beautiful campus of University of Chicago and downtown Chicago skyline.
We also had the chance to take a look at exam rooms and patient rooms. You can really understand what a patient centered hospital is when you visit here. The head wall generously has two sets of medical gasses on both sides with the consideration of different handedness. And the rail system even makes it easier for both patients and doctors to move these facilities on the wall. The signage of color is a non verbal communication between doctors come to the ward.
And patient room even more focuses on enhancing the patient experience. The get well network system displays patient's name and greetings on the screen to make patient feel welcomed. Mirrors on both sides of the window expand the view of outside. It is these details that makes the CCD an extraordinary hospital.
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