Continued...........The new 885,000-foot, 11-story North Pavilion will open with 37 operating suites, 2 procedure rooms, 3 medical surgical units, 4 intensive care units — trauma and burn intensive care, surgical intensive care, neuroscience intensive care, and cardiovascular intensive care — and the University Emergency Department (UED). At 38,000 square feet and with 45 private treatment rooms, it is considerably larger than the old space.

The UED is located on the first floor, along with the large public lobby and front door. The second floor will serve as the main concourse into the University Hospital complex from the new visitor parking deck, with its primary entrance on 4th Avenue South.

The New Elegant Lobby

The North Pavilion features 15 elevators, and visitor elevators are oriented at each level to either the 3-story lobby or the open-light well, which will help with orientation. Three second-floor bridges connect the North Pavilion with Wallace Tumor Institute, Spain Wallace, and the West Pavilion, and a fifth-level bridge over 6th Avenue South links the new building with other patient-care areas.

The new hospital will be equipped with state-of-the-art digital and wireless technology. Operating rooms will contain voice-activated video technology allowing the surgeon to view x-rays, ECGs or pathology specimins without having to break scrub or leave the room. A new telemetry system will allow medical staff to monitor patients as they are transported to various areas throughout the hospital. Pyxis, an automated drug dispensing system, is designed to decrease medication errors.

The new University Hospital contains 96 well-appointed, private patient rooms. The rooms are designed with great attention to detail, with the comfort and convenience of patients and their families uppermost in mind. Each room will contain a wireless call system so patients can communicate directly with their assigned nurse, wherever he or she is located. Two “service columns” on each side of patient beds will contain all the electrical equipment (lights, flat screen monitors, gases, IV poles) – getting all the cords and poles off the floor. New "total-care" beds will allow nurses to take patients from horizontal position to full sitting position without bending and lifting, making sitting up easier for patients and nurses.

UAB’s new patient rooms are designed to re-create the warm ambiance of home using a non-institutional color palette, spacious floor plans and comfortable seating. Artwork is specially selected to enhance the healing processes of the body, mind and spirit.

Designed to be patient and family friendly, the new hosptal has seating for more than 900 visitors, including large, open public accommodations centered around the atrium and skylight.

A healing, stress-relieving garden for patients and their families to sit quietly among plants and seasonal displays of colorful flowers will be located around the fifth-floor skylight, where it can be viewed from the floors above.

The North Pavilion rooftop Healing Garden will offer a serene setting for visitors and patients to relax and reflect. The garden will feature waterfalls, multiple plantings in free-standing containers, and varied seating.

With construction nearing completion, the new University Hospital is scheduled to open in Fall 2004.

To take an online virtual tour of the new University Hospital log on to www.health.uab.edu/hospitaltour.