By Cathyrn Jakicic/ Special to Healthcare Facilities Today

The All Saints Cancer Center in Racine, Wis., recently opened a new facility that is twice the size of the one it replaced. Those extra square feet have been used to increase the level of comfort and privacy that All-Saints can offer its patients.

The new center includes a larger infusion department with open, semi-private and private options. Each bay has cubicle curtains, individual televisions and adjustable seating. Near the infusion area is an outdoor, rooftop terrace garden that is visible from many of the open infusion bays.

To reinforce the calming atmosphere, the facility is decorated in warm tones with soothing lighting and there is a waterfall mural in the lobby.

The entire Cancer Center is now lit by dimmable LED lights, Aaron Collins, All Saints director of plant operations and maintenance, said, so patients and their families can adjust light levels for their comfort. The interior LED lighting also helps the facility beats the energy code requirements by more than 40 percent. Occupancy sensors also were installed to save energy by turning lights off when spaces are not in use.

There’s a meditation room just off the main lobby with a 6x12-foot mural of a wooded scene.

“It’s a new space that was created for families to just be,” Collins said in an article in the Racine Journal Times. “The old cancer center didn’t have much room for those types of spaces.”

That meditation room art is one of several large photo murals in the center, all of which show peaceful outdoor scenes.

 “The staff was very involved in the design and in picking these specific pictures, and they definitely wanted to see a theme of: These are definitely places you could find yourself in Wisconsin,” Collins said in the article.

The rooftop garden and an outdoor flowing water feature in the shape of the cancer awareness ribbon take the place of a Garden of Hope, which was lost in the new construction.

The facility has also dramatically increased the number of bathrooms for patients and staff.  Before, a daily staff of about 35 people shared one bathroom for both genders. Now they will share a half-dozen.

The rest rooms are equipped with low flow toilets.  All Saints also installed water-bottle fillers on each floor to encourage people to use their own bottles, rather than purchasing water in disposable bottles.

There are also seven more exam rooms with lower, safer exam tables and new consultation rooms that will allow patients’ support networks to be part of discussions.

According to a release from Eppstein Uhen Architects, other features of the new cancer center include:

·    The mobile Pet CT has been relocated away from the front entry.  This provides more privacy for patients using the PET CT.  A dedicated waiting area with a restroom/changing room and lockers has been provided for those using this mobile technology.  Outside a new dock will provide a level entrance into the Pet CT trailer and a canopy overhead to provide cover during inclement or hot weather.

·    Valet parking will be provided for patients and families.  There will also be direct access into the building from the parking structure.  Whether patients care to park their own vehicle or choose to use the valet, they can now enter the building under cover in inclement weather. 

·    The cancer ribbon theme is used throughout the facility, especially on the first floor where colored “ribbons” in the ceiling lead either to the medical oncology clinic and lab, or directly into the infusion center.

·    Each floor has a waiting area with bottle fillers, coffee, and a variety of comfortable seating choices, charging stations, and views to the outside.

·    Gowned waiting spaces for radiation oncology have been expanded, and include gender-specific wheelchair-accessible changing rooms.

·    Flexible education spaces have been provided for small to large groups.  This includes a new multi-disciplinary conference room, which can seat 24-40 people.  This conference room will provide video conferencing technology to physicians, allowing them to connect to colleagues anywhere.  Alternatively, the furniture could be removed and the room could be used for a yoga class.

·    A dedicated inpatient holding area has been created adjacent to the radiation oncology area for inpatients requiring cancer treatment.

·    Additional exam rooms have been provided at the radiation oncology and medical oncology clinics.  Each clinic will also have a patient/family consult room.

·    Each infusion bay has new infusion chairs and guest chairs as well as the ability to adapt to the patients need for privacy with a combination of sliding screens and cubicle curtains. 

·    An onstage/offstage design keeps staff-only circulation areas separated from public areas. 

·    There will be an updated resource area centrally located on the main floor.  Patients will be able to access health information on an internet-connected computer or review local retail establishments that provide services such as wig-fitting or massage.

·    A new satellite lab has been provided and expanded to support convenient patient testing.

·    A new, updated pharmacy meeting current USP 797 guidelines will be included and located adjacent to the infusion area for convenient staff access.