|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Tiffany Lam | Special to the Almanac
Kaiser Permanente’s new 149-bed, seven-story Redwood City hospital is set to open Dec. 16. The nonprofit health organization began construction on the 280,000-square-foot building on Veterans Boulevard and Walnut Street in 2011.
The hospital will replace the current Kaiser Permanente hospital next door, built at about 200,000 square feet in the 1960s.
“Tearing down the current hospital is part of our master plan,” said Frank Beirne, senior vice president of Kaiser Permanent and area manager overseeing the Redwood City hospital.
Kaiser Permanente relied heavily on patient feedback to design the new hospital, said Karl Sonkin, a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente Northern California.
“We have a high-technology test center in San Leandro,” said Mr. Sonkin. “It actually stages new ideas and protocols in a setting very similar to a real hospital.”
Designed to meet seismic safety standards, the new hospital is equipped with a new labor and delivery unit, six operating rooms, an advanced neuroscience center, and an expanded emergency department.
Most rooms in the new hospital are private with visitor-friendly features such as pullout guest beds, according to Mr. Beirne.
“One of the most significant features is the private rooms,” said Mr. Beirne. “It’s part of the healing process to have a good support system, and pullout guest beds allow families to be supportive and comfortable.”
In addition to having privacy and space, patients will have more control over their care, a high priority for Kaiser Permanente, said Mr. Beirne.
Through an interactive system called “Get Well Network,” patients will be able to see their schedules, order room-service style meals, and watch movies and health videos on a flat-screen television. Using a keypad linked to the television, patients will be able to control drapes and lights, and summon help if needed.
“The system allows patients to be the decision-makers and participants in their own care,” said Mr. Beirne. “We want to make the hospital patient and family centered. They should be able to see what their day looks like and who their physicians are.”
The objective of the new building is not to accommodate more patients — in fact, the number of beds has been reduced to 149 from 213 — but rather to help patients become aware and informed of their care, he said.
“The capacity of the facility has been reduced, but the facility is larger,” said Mr. Beirne. “And with advances in technology and health care, we’ve gotten to a position to deliver care in a different, more effective way.”
Care that may have required a stay of one week might be reduced to a day, he said. “Advancements in medicine have resulted in fewer patients requiring in-hospital care.”
In-hospital patients at the current hospital will be moved to the new building in December, Mr. Beirne said.
What will be the parking for this new hospital. Will we have to walk from the parking lot next to Optics, or are you planning a new parking lot closer to the neww hospital? A member of Kaiser since 1953.
“The nonprofit health organization began construction …”
To the best of my knowledge, the only part of Kaiser Permanente that is <non-profit> is the headquarters organization. All hospitals, doctors and services like optometry and audiology operate under contract. That explains the coast in many areas and why audiology and optometry charge about as much as competing retailer services.
I, too, wonder where Kaiser expects people to park when using this new building. I am also quite dismayed that the new hospital has 63 fewer beds than the old one. What a shame. That will inevitably lead to increased pressure to either not admit people who really need to be admitted and to send people home who should not really be sent home that soon. The population of the Mid-Peninsula has grown quite a bit since the old hospital was built in 1970.
Kaiser makes billions in profits, and this is the best they can do? They really need to build a few more hospitals and many more clinics and provide much more parking for their members and staff.
The reason for fewer beds is that they dont want patients in the hospital. They want your care provided by your families at home where it doesn’t cost anything. Also why they have beds for families in the room. Also the expanded emergency department which they keep you in instead of admitting you to the hospital. You might have to show up two or three times before you are admitted. And pay that hefty copay each time too! All to increase their profit, which is currently $12 billion PER DAY. You are going to have to really advocate for yourselves to get the care you need. Kaiser’s plan is to keep as much of your premiums as they can which means giving you less care. “thrive” indeed.
The previous RN hit it on the head! Collecting your premiums and gathering in your ever rising copays lines the pockets of the CEOs. No beds- no need to have staff or physicians to care for you… so you go home very quickly if you are hospitalized ( at all) and with your loved ones being expected to “nurse” you back to health. Everything’s beautiful and shiney and looks great! Behind it all is a corporation trying to keep you at arms length and hoping you never have to be seen. Insist on receiving the care you pay for and deserve. Remain proactive for yourselves. Don’t allow them the opportunity to deny you proper treatment.
Kaiser Permanente has this answer regarding parking at the Redwood City complex:
Most of the outpatient clinics in the medical center complex are not moving, so parking for them is unaffected. For the new hospital, which is immediately adjacent to the old hospital tower, there is a repaved parking lot on Walnut Street, directly across from the new emergency walk-in entrance.
Profits? Kaiser Permanente is a non-profit organization.
And they are limited to what they can spend on non-benefit expenses by the Affordable Care Act.
The parking and access problem is not the new hospital. It’s access to Cypress and the outpatient lab (which I understand is going to stay in the current hospital building. Just try to get into Cypress if you are disabled or a slow walking person of any age…long walks, no close shuttle stops, no good drop off area. Folks use the very small area on Maple as a parking area and leave cars unattended. Saw a Kaiser employee in scrubs do it last week.
Closing Birch to internal medicine just adds to the problem. Why not reconfigure the area between the MRI building and Oak to make this campus work effectively for outpatient clinics? Why not talk with the folks using the clinics to find out what would work? If there are plans, why not communicate with RWC members about them?
I have been a very satisfied member of Kaiser for more than 40 years.
What’s all this bad-mouthing about?