Project category: Remodel/Renovation (completed April 2005)

Chief administrator: Nina Tucker, Administrator, (954) 987-2000

Firm: MGE Architects, (305) 444-0413

Design team: Jose L. Estevez, AIA, Principal-in-Charge; Jorge Alonso, Project Manager; Deborah Groner D’Agostino, CHE, Healthcare Laboratory and Equipment Planner; Maggie Binimelis, RID, Interior Designer (MGE Architects); James E. Binder, Construction Manager (Skanska USA Building, Inc.); Jeff Lindquist, MEP Engineering (Smith Seckman Reid)

Photography: ©2005 Scott B. Smith

Total building area (sq. ft.): 12,000

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $417

Total construction cost (excluding land): $5,000,000

This new 12,000-sq.-ft. children’s emergency department at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital is part of the adjoining emergency department expansion project at Memorial Regional Hospital.

It was important to create a friendly and entertaining environment for the children yet have a state-of-the-art design that provides the optimum in emergent patient care. This department now has a new dedicated entrance for the ambulatory patient and a separate pediatric ambulance entrance directly into the heart of the department. The waiting room is flanked by an outdoor play area with nighttime movies projected on the wall and overlooked by the registration/triage area.

Inside, 23 exam rooms are laid out around a central nursing core that houses the service areas and the nursing stations, with immediate access for the staff and direct visual connection to the exam rooms, which all have breakaway glass doors to enhance privacy. The rooms are designed with same-hand layouts for ease of staff operations and to improve patient safety. The finishes in each room include a mural and are individualized to reflect the operations of a local business that is sponsoring the room—be it an ice-cream shop or the local professional hockey team.