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Show Caring Magazine BUILDING FOR A NEW CENTURY OF CA As a nonprofit health caie system, IHC returns all money it earns to the community com-munity in the form of improved facilities, facili-ties, better services, and lower patient charges. Since IHC was created in 1975, it has invested more than $1 billion bil-lion in upgrading its facilities. Another $1 billion is being spent from 1997-2002. 1997-2002. This is one way IHC leinvests its margin in the community. The new facilities are not just prettier pretti-er versions of the old ones. They are designed around new ways of caring for patients and reflect the input of physicians, physi-cians, other clinical staff members, and patients. Each facility is also built to mxmt & site aamWm zmm S33B &sm-m 5iH3 (torn higher standards with regard to seismic considerations, computer information systems, and other technological innovations. inno-vations. After the caregivers have discussed dis-cussed their patients' needs, the clinical team sits down with the architects to work on the building design. One example of a clinical design team's work is the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the new West Building of Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. The unit was designed by neonatologists, nurses, other caregivers and by parents of premature babies. Many parents volunteer volun-teer to serve on an informal advisory council to the NICU, where they provide input on a variety of issues and share their experiences with other parents. As a result of the team's recommendations, recommen-dations, the NICU is about triple the size of the old unit. Large windows fill the room with soft daylight, which is more healthy for both the infants and their parents. Each baby now has some 150 square feet of space, which avoids crowding and affords room for the parents par-ents to spend time visiting. This year, new isolettes will be available that will even allow mothers to lie next to their infants. Sleeping rooms are also available avail-able in the unit for parents who wish to spend the night. "Our goal is to return as much care as possible to the parents," said Stephen Minton, M.D., chief of neonat-alogy neonat-alogy at Utah Valley Regional. "Even though our patients here are quite tiny, contact between parent and child has a significant impact on the babies' growth and development. IHC listened to our team's recommendations, and the result is this beautiful new NICU, which truly represents the state of our art. This unit is second to none anywhere any-where in the world." Similar teams have been at work in designing other new facilities, such as the hospital in Ogden which will replace McKay-Dee and the new hospital hospi-tal planned for the Salt lake Valley. 2 bJJtl I -1 El t |