The Hospital of the Future

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital opens its doors to a new era in health care.

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story by Lisa Stamos | Photo by Tao Zhang

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital is nearing completion of its campus modernization project, with final interior renovations due for completion in 2017. The $200 million project supports Good Shepherd Hospital’s vision to deliver exceptional community health care. For the doctors, nurses, and all who deliver health care services to its patients, the modernization goals are many.

Patient privacy is now possible, creating a quieter and calmer healing environment. Smart room technology helps improve patient care with improved medical team communication. Patient access and flow for services has been streamlined for efficiency, reducing time and cost for everyone. Facility construction plans integrated new standards in design and energy-efficient materials and the hospital will go for LEED certification, a green certification for new buildings that lead the way in innovation and sustainability. Redesigned space now offers expanded workspace needed for larger medical equipment and devices that didn’t exist 37 years ago when Good Shepherd Hospital was built.

A new era in health care has arrived through the vision, planning, and execution of a complex construction project that happened without closing hospital operations or interrupting any of the health care and services to the community. The hospital of the future has arrived.

In 1979, the residents of the greater Barrington area wanted a hospital close to home. It was the residents of Barrington and the surrounding towns who pulled together to build Good Shepherd Hospital, which was the newest hospital in the Evangelical Health System (EHS) at the time.

In 1996, EHS and Lutheran General Hospital then merged to become Advocate Health Care, now the largest health system in the state, a national leader in population health management and Advocate is one of the largest Accountable Care Organizations in the country. The faith-based, not-for-profit health system is based in Downers Grove, Ill.

The mission of Good Shepherd Hospital is to serve the health of the patients, families, and the community with the safest and best outcomes, and to build life-long relationships with those they serve. “We have such a strong relationship between the community and the hospital,” says Good Shepherd Hospital President Karen Lambert, who lives in Barrington. “The incredible support of the community continues to inspire me.”

Lambert joined Good Shepherd Hospital in March 2000 as its vice president of operations. She was named president in May 2001. Previously, she had worked at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Much has changed since the hospital was built, and even since the time Lambert became its leader. “Medicine has become more outpatient focused,” she said. “Consumerism has driven changes in health care, and people want easy in-and-out access. Good Shepherd offers outpatient locations in Crystal Lake, Lake Zurich, and Algonquin.”

The massive modernization of Good Shepherd Hospital’s campus has embraced and made possible changes in the delivery of modern health care. “There are parts of the hospital that have not been touched in 37 years,” Lambert says. “We’ve changed how we manage patients, and some of the outcome goals have changed. We have been lowering readmission rates by having physician follow-up appointments scheduled before a patient leaves.”

The hospital was reaching inpatient capacity as modernization moved from an idea to a necessity. When the project was first being considered, the plan was to add 50 new beds. A decision to hold off on the project was made in 2009 after the financial market crisis in 2008. When the project resumed years later, plans changed. Only seven new beds were added, with the new goal of having individual rooms available for patient privacy as the larger goal.

The Highest Level of Care

“It’s an exciting time to be on staff,” says Good Shepherd Hospital’s Vice President of Medical Management, Dr. Barry Rosen. Rosen joined the staff in 1992 and has been functioning in his dual role as a surgeon and administrator since 1998. “The modernization has been a dream and vision for a long time,” Rosen says. His responsibilities include functioning as a liaison between hospital administration and the medical staff, and overseeing quality and patient safety. “This renovation is so much more than a face-lift, it will actually allow us to provide better care. This is not just where we work, it’s our hospital, too,” Rosen says. “It’s where we take our families.”

From a medical point of view, the technology used by the medical staff outpaced the hospital facility. There were no computers in the operating rooms as there are now. “We did the best we could by retro-fitting machines in the operating rooms, but this was difficult and space was cramped,” Rosen says. For example, the Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) has dramatically cut down the time needed for treating breast cancer, as compared to traditional radiation treatment. It’s the difference between five days a week for seven weeks, and a 30-minute procedure in the operating room with IORT. “Twenty-five percent of breast cancer patients are candidates for IORT, but until the modernization, most of our operating rooms were too small,” Rosen said. Now the new operating rooms are almost twice as large, enabling room for this and other innovative equipment. Another innovation that didn’t exist in 1979 when Good Shepherd Hospital opened is the use of laparoscopy and robotics for surgical procedures.

Larger operating rooms was one of the inputs from the medical staff. “Our input involved a variety of different medical and surgical specialists,” Rosen says. “Physicians volunteered time to give input that is truly patient-centered, which is important because now doctors in various specialties are working in a more coordinated manner,” he said.

Providing care outside of the hospital’s walls is another metric seen by Rosen. But when patients are inside for overnight care or longer, the greatest improvement he sees are private beds. “It’s the number one design improvement. This is the time you really need privacy, and the doctors like privacy, too, while they are discussing sensitive health issues with their patients,” Rosen says.

Your Medical Quarterback

Every patient staying at the hospital will have one physician designated as a “quarterback” whose job is to coordinate all care between the physicians involved. That quarterback will also be the one decision-maker to discharge the patient. Today, this is necessary due to the growing number of medical specialties in health care, with a total of 700 physicians at the hospital representing 50 specialties. “The quarterback is the glue, and we’ve just piloted this new approach,” Rosen says.

The hospital staff is reengineering the way they deliver patient-centered care, and how it will benefit patients and their families. In addition to new and private rooms, a family member can stay overnight in the patient’s room on a pull-out

bed tucked into a sitting bench in the room. This way, the doctor can see family members. Each floor will have a concierge whose job is to coordinate meetings between the patient, the family, and doctor. Each doctor and concierge will have a “Rolodex” of staff phone numbers in his or her cell phone for timely and efficient communication between staff and the concierge.

Making the Rounds

There are more than 500 registered nurses that work at Good Shepherd. Chief Nursing Executive, Marianne Araujo, says that her staff was largely behind the design changes. “There is one nurse in every room, and she or he becomes a part of you, and your care,” she says. A major change in patient care is with rounding, which will now be conducted by the nurse and physician together. This helps patients to advocate for themselves and their care, and creates more efficient communication between everyone involved.

Good Shepherd Hospital recently achieved Magnet status, a rigorous third-party nursing certification that affirms the quality of best practices in nursing. “This is the strongest nursing staff I have ever worked with,” she says. “Our environment is rich with people of high caliber. The modernization completely redesigned our professional practices, and we had the support of Karen Lambert to do so,” Araujo says. There are greater safety practices with new bar coding systems to increase safety. With new equipment in some of the rooms, the hospital is now bariatric-certified. Having doctors and nurses make their rounds together is game-changing.”

Araujo says the hospital patients have been gracious during the lengthy construction. “Our patients expect the highest level of professional care,” she says. With the changes in nursing through modernization, the number of calls to doctors has decreased 30 percent. And when patients need a doctor, they now have a quarterback.

Visiting with a Nurse

Ashley Enk has been with Good Shepherd Hospital for 12 years, first as a clinical technician, and now a registered nurse. Her mom, Julie Enk, is also a registered nurse of 40 years. Enk says the role of nurses is to be involved with changes and modifications in patient care. The larger and private rooms are a welcome change, offering lower risk, greater confidentiality, and more space to work in. With their input, the nurses asked for all private rooms, mobile computers at the bedside, a family area in the rooms, central telemetry, and state-of-the-art equipment. And now, with nurses and doctors rounding together, Enk says they are one voice for the patients, working together to improve safety and efficiency.

“The new processes will allow the nurses to spend more time at the bedside with our patients, where we want to be,” Enk says. “The private rooms allow all members of the health care team to have more robust conversations with patients, without risking patient confidentiality. The floor layout allows for quick access from touchdown stations to our patients’ rooms.”

The nursing staff at Good Shepherd are prepared to work with the most modern equipment and technology. Another exciting advancement the nursing staff will have is smart room technology, which enhances communication and supports patients being more involved with their own plan of care. And now, patient itineraries

that list scheduled medical tests are accessible to patients and their families in the room. A Room Link feature will allow for the quick location of staff and important information prior to entering a patient room.

The Modernization Project

The project of modernizing Good Shepherd Hospital has been driven by consumers who find health care costs too high. Architect firm, HOK, was brought in for design, and Mortenson Construction was hired to implement the construction. For a project this large in scope and cost, it’s unusual that the hospital kept all clinical functions in operation, says Administrator of Clinical and Support Services Allison Wyler.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, especially with the project’s level of complexity,” Wyler says. Wyler’s role in the process is to be the liaison and executive sponsor between the construction team and the executives at the hospital. “We’ve been thoughtful about the design all the way through,” she says. “We co-located the outpatient diagnostic testing services off the main entrance along with other preventative diagnostic services, such as breast care and a health management clinic. We have taken input throughout the process from the frontline staff, physicians, and leadership,” Wyler said.

More natural lighting and a quieter, calming interior is designed to create a better healing environment. Every detail has been designed to enhance the patient experience and help the hospital meet its mission of excellence in health care.

The materials for Barrington’s largest ever design and build project give an idea of its magnitude—for example, 1,244 tons of structural steel, 1,324 doors, 7,000 lighting fixtures, 9,148 yards of concrete (that would flood nearly two football fields), and 1,540 pieces of glass. Wyler says that the project created 230,000 square feet of new space, and renovated an existing 155,000 square feet of legacy space. “The greatest challenge of the project was its complexity,” she says. “We had 26 phases and it was like a chess game to keep our patient services operating. Wyler is known for her success in taking the complex project and breaking it down into smaller components.

Now that the most visible parts of the modernization are in view, Wyler says a frequent comment is that “it looks like the picture” and she sees people’s excitement. “I’ve never seen a community get behind a project like ours,” she says. The volunteers have also been a great help in guiding patients to changed clinical locations during construction.

Not Just a New Building

The modernization has opened physicians’ eyes to the fact that the physical changes at the hospital are not just about a new building, according to Rosen. “We are reengineering our care, because we feel that our patients deserve a modern facility. Karen’s vision, and Allison’s leadership have helped us keep up with technology. We are very excited.”

The outstanding accomplishments of the entire modernization team wouldn’t have been possible without the leadership of Karen Lambert. Barrington resident and hospital supporter Joseph Kainz credits Lambert with being a catalyst for making Good Shepherd Hospital into a superior medical facility for the 21st century. “Karen has built a management team that has established superior personnel selection, and ongoing training programs,” he says. “Her mission is for patient orientation and satisfaction. She’s fostered a culture of the highest clinical and physicians standards,” Kainz said.

Barbie and Paul Hills, long-time friends and supporters of Good Shepherd Hospital also recognize Lambert’s capabilities. “Her children live here, this is her hometown,” they say. “There is low turnover and Karen communicates the hospital’s mission with pride to her people.”

For Lambert, a project of this size is once in a lifetime, and she credits Allison Wyler with doing an amazing job. Twenty-five percent or fewer of today’s hospital executives will have this kind of opportunity in their careers.

“It’s a significant investment of Advocate Health Care and our community,”
Lambert says. “I’m most proud of the great care we provide every day, the commitment of our entire team throughout this complex project, and the remarkable support of
the community.”