Feel free to walk into the hospital room of the future, hidden now in an Escondido warehouse.
A mock-up of a patient room for Palomar West Hospital now under construction (and a similar one for a future Pomerado Hospital tower) is dazzling visitors. It was erected to prompt input from medical professionals and learn about constructability issues. Before Palomar West opens in late 2011, there may be revisions for reasons of economy, practicality or even upgrades for technological advances. But, here is today's vision:
Getting to the room will be easier with GPS devices reading the visitor's bar-code badge and guiding the way.
An entry-way wash basin tells caregivers and visitors the first order of business: Wash your hands!
A first glance shows a room double the size of downtown Palomar's, 350 square feet instead of 146. There's a family area, complete with easy chair, desk and pull-out sofa.
The foot wall is actually a communications center with electronic reminders and displays of vital signs. The patient can adjust the overhead lights for brightness and color, encouraging sleep. The head wall can handle more than five dozen electrical and electronic hookups.
The bed itself is an electronic marvel. A mattress cover monitors the patient's vital signs without any wires. In an emergency, the bed sounds the alarm.
Men, it seems, ask for help getting out of bed about as often as they ask for directions. A self-help lift bar hangs from the ceiling even as the omnipresent mattress cover is poised to tattle about an unauthorized bed exit.
A spacious bathroom with open shower is drawing mixed reviews. There is no shower stall curb to step or stumble over, but nurses suspect they, too, may get wet.
Outside, an electronic nurse's window allows the caretaker to peek in on a sleeping patient, then flip a switch for a privacy curtain.
The hospital finally is a work in progress and CEO Michael Covert says the Palomar Pomerado Health District is well on its way to meeting benchmarks in a deal with the city.
Foundation work at Palomar West on the edge of the city will be followed by structural steel in a few months. With construction cost increases and delays, the initial hospital will be 300 or 360 rooms, not the 453 or 600 once anticipated.
The district has given the city $13 million for the Citracado Parkway link, with the city responsible for coming up with about $6 million more. Timely widening of the Nordahl Road bridge still is a concern.
The district has purchased three downtown properties and is in negotiations on another, which will permit a road closing and expansion of current grounds for retail, housing and medical offices. Relocation of the women's and children's center will be delayed a half-dozen years.
Some 257 employees have relocated to Escondido, to be followed soon by another 50. The district's construction purchases are a major boost to the city's sales tax revenues.
Issues do remain in the somewhat rocky relationship between hospital and local power structure. Downtown boosters still are fighting somewhat of a vocal rear guard action about the hospital moving 2.6 miles away. Critics have focused on a reported room guarantee agreement with Kaiser Permanente, a flap the district has exacerbated by refusing to reveal details.
Escondido's less-than-progressive council almost chased the hospital to San Marcos. But relations between city and hospital staffs are now described as cordial. Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler and Council member Dick Daniels meet occasionally with hospital executives. Tellingly, there is no direct communication with Escondido's peculiar council majority of Sam Abed, Ed Gallo and Marie Waldron.
What should not get lost amid the sniping, unexpected delays or cost overruns ahead is that better and more plentiful health care is coming to Escondido. Like a mock-up patient room, that prospect is dazzling.
