By Gretchen Pahia
Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center is making big changes aimed at improving patient care by building a truly functional working environment for medical staff that will greatly improve the patient and visitor experience.
Construction is underway on the progressive care unit located in the medical center’s D tower, where patients with serious and complicated conditions can receive better monitoring. This new unit, which is scheduled to open by fall, will offer 28 private beds – something the community has truly wanted.
“Our patients were telling us that they wanted private rooms,” says Director of Progressive Care Services Mary Smith, RN. “Our patients deserve to be treated with dignity and made to feel special in their times of illness.”
Mary is excited about the new endeavor. “I was asked to join this unit the first week I joined Banner Del E. Webb,” she says. “I have never been involved in a project like this.”
She adds, “We had a vision of what we needed. I was fortunate enough to be included in the process. We looked at the Banner template and were able to make changes to positively impact how we deliver patient care, as well as save money by not doing some of the things we did in the past.”
The team looked at this from the perspective of the caregivers’ needs with a focus on patient and visitor comfort. The private rooms will allow doctors, patients and their families the ability to discuss critical patient care in a private environment.
“Nurses care for people every day; it is what they do and it is what is in their hearts, so by making their jobs easier, we are helping our patients heal,” she says. “We want to build these relationships so patients know their nurses and medical staff care about them and also care about working at Banner Del E. Webb.”
Robert Gould, president of Banner Health’s Arizona West Region, says, “This project is going to allow us to grow where we know the community is growing. It will allow us to focus on services here at Banner Del E. Webb and we simply couldn’t do that without growing the number of beds and expanding other specialties that this community is going to need.”
Mary says the staff is excited about the new unit. “I recently took a book with all the finishes and fabrics around to the units and stayed until 3 a.m. to meet with all shifts. They are all asking if they can come work in this new unit.”
The medical center’s monitor technicians will be the first to move up to the unit and they will have a beautiful office with a window. It’s a much better environment for the team tasked with watching people on heart monitors on 12-hour shifts.
“They have a tough job,” Mary says. “They have to watch patients’ monitors, call nurses, and call codes. Giving them a better place to do their job is very exciting.”
