Memorial Health System’s Belpre Medical Campus Breaks Ground On Women’s And Children’s Hospital In Belpre, Ohio
Memorial Health System (Marietta, Ohio) began construction on a new women’s and children’s hospital at its Belpre Medical Campus in Belpre, Ohio, according to a news release from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office.
The $125 million project will add a 66,000-square-foot hospital. Services will include specialized prenatal, obstetrics, and pediatric care, as well as a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and mental health services for mothers experiencing postpartum depression.
The health system is partnering with Akron Children’s Hospital (Akron, Ohio) on the project, which is expected to be completed in fall 2026.
2024 HCD Conference Keynote: Prioritizing Happiness Drives Creativity, Engagement At Work
Investing time in the tasks and routines that bring the most joy has been shown to improve both home and work lives, according to Cassie Holmes, chaired professor at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson School of Management (Los Angeles) and author of “Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most.”
During her opening keynote session at the 2024 Healthcare Design Expo + Conference in Indianapolis, Holmes discussed how people spend their time and shared ideas for how to prioritize happiness and use time at work more optimally by designing schedules with purpose.
Research on happiness
Using empirically based insights, she told attendees that spending two hours a day doing what makes them happy can improve not only their lives, but also their work.
“When you feel happier, it allows you to show up better in the work you do and for those around you. … There is plenty of data showing that happiness has positive consequences across our daily lives, in the workplace, interpersonal relationships, and in respect to health,” she says.
“It makes us more creative, more adaptive in our problem solving. Happy people are more engaged and better performers. They’re less likely to call in sick or leave the company.”
What is time poverty?
In her research, she found that 48 percent of Americans report feeling “time poor,” which she defines as “the acute feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it.”
Time poverty, she adds, “makes us less healthy, less kind, less confident, and less happy.”
However, there is such a thing as having too much time, she adds.
Using her own research conducted at UCLA, Holmes shared with attendees that having more than five hours of discretionary time also makes people less happy. The “sweet spot,” she says, is between two and five hours of free time daily.
“Having too much free time undermines our sense of purpose and leaves us feeling less satisfied,” she says, adding that the key is “not being time rich, but making the time you have rich.”
Actionable advice
Holmes shared some strategies to achieve that goal and help people experience greater joy, including:
- Wiser spending. Identify worthwhile ways to spend time by tracking activities over the course of a week and rating those activities on a 10-point scale for happiness.
- Turn routine into ritual, give it a name, and make it special. This can include date nights for couples, as well as protecting time for the work that is most meaningful.
- Waste management. People can “buy better time,” she says, by outsourcing with time-saving services such as a meal-prep subscription.
- Bundle the “unfun with fun.” This might mean listening to a podcast during a daily commute or during household chores.
- Identify your purpose. Understanding the “why” behind the work we do can clarify what to say yes to (what’s worthwhile) and what to say no to.
- Treat the weekend like a vacation. The research shows that people are more satisfied and recharged after a weekend in which they are more present and engaged—when they can shift out of the task orientation of getting things done and give themselves license to slow down and enjoy activities.
- Count the times left. People who realize that the rituals they most enjoy are finite can avoid hedonic adaptation, or the propensity to get used to things over time such that they stop noticing.
Wrapping up, Homes notes that happiness is not about the quantity of time, but the quality of time. “How we invest the time that we have and how invested we are in how we spend that time,” she says.
More coverage of the 2024 HCD Conference + Expo will be featured in Healthcare Design’s November/December issue. For more conference new and updates, go here.
DLR Group Appoints Healthcare Design Project Leader for Pacific Northwest
DLR Group (Omaha, Neb.) has appointed Jackie Eckhardt to lead the firm’s healthcare design projects in the Pacific Northwest, according to a news release.
Eckhardt will oversee both healthcare and higher education projects from the firm’s Seattle office.
Her appointment follows the retirement of David Frum, who led healthcare design projects for more than 40 years at the firm (Frum founded Salus Architecture, which was acquired by DLR Group in 2021).
Read more news about DLR Group here and here.
Lexington Medical Center Unveils New EmPATH Unit In West Columbia, South Carolina
Teaching hospital Lexington Medical Center (West Columbia, S.C.) and the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (Columbia, S.C.) opened a new EmPATH (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing) unit, in West Columbia, according to the website coladaily.com.
The project is one of 13 hospitals across South Carolina that have received grant money for the development of such units, which are designed to serve emergency department patients experiencing mental health crises by providing a separate environment tailored to patients’ behavioral health needs, according to the article.
The EmPATH model includes physical spaces that help staff monitor patients in an open milieu and are staff by a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, nurses, and social workers.
For more on Lexington Medical Center, go here.
Project To Nearly Double The Size Of Ascension Seton Williamson Medical Center In Round Rock, Texas
Private healthcare provider Ascension (St. Louis) has broken ground on an expansion of Ascension Seton Williamson Medical Center in Round Rock, Texas, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The $230 million project will nearly double the size of the hospital with a six-story, 216,000-square-foot second tower that will add 160 beds to the existing 181-bed hospital. The project also includes a 34,000-square-foot medical office building (MOB) for outpatient services including wound care, cardiac rehabilitation, and pediatric physical therapy.
The new tower will also house two operating rooms (ORs), MRI suite, catheterization lab, and expanded emergency department (ED).
The project is expected to be completed in spring 2026.
Read more news about Ascension here.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Tops Out New Presbyterian Tower In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC; Pittsburgh, Pa.) marked the topping out of the new UPMC Presbyterian hospital tower in Pittsburgh with the placement of the final structural steel beam, according to a news release.
The 17-story hospital tower will house 636 patient rooms, as well as operating rooms and amenity spaces such as rooftop gardens, family lounges, restaurant and café, and chapel.
Construction is expected to be completed in late 2026.
Expansion To Add 168,000 Square Feet To Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill In New Jersey
Inspira Health (Elmer, N.J.) broke ground on an expansion of its Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill in Mullica Hill, N.J., according to a news release.
The $240 million project will add 168,000 square feet to the campus, including a 5-story wing with expanded ICU, medical/surgical, maternal child health, observation, imaging, radiology, and simulation lab departments.
Renovation of existing clinical and non-clinical spaces on the first floor of the hospital will be part of a future phase.
The new wing is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027.
Read more news about Inspira Health here.
Salem Township Hospital Plans Expansion Of ED, Operating Rooms In Salem, Illinois
Salem Township Hospital in Salem, Ill., plans to expand and renovate its emergency department (ED) and operating rooms (ORs), according to southernillinoisnow.com.
The $17 million project will double the number of ORs to four and add three beds to the ED. The work is expected to be completed in early 2027.
Chelsea Hospital Opens Expanded Adult Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit In Chelsea, Michigan
Chelsea Hospital, a joint venture between Trinity Health (Livonia, Mich.) and University of Michigan Health (Ann Arbor, Mich.), opened an expanded adult inpatient rehabilitation unit in Chelsea, Mich., according to a news release.
The $11 million project increased the size of the rehabilitation unit from 24 to 40 beds for patients recovering from trauma, stroke, brain and spinal cord injuries, neurological and cardiac/pulmonary diseases, cancer, amputation, and organ transplants.
Children’s Health, UT Southwestern Medical Center Break Ground On $5 Billion Pediatric Campus
Children’s Health (Dallas) and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have started construction on a $5 billion pediatric health campus on the UT Southwestern campus, according to a news release.
The 4.7-million-square-foot project will replace the existing Children’s Medical Center Dallas and consist of two 12-story towers and one 8-story tower. The central hospital tower will be named the Rees-Jones Tower and will serve as the main hospital entrance, housing the lobby.
The new pediatric hospital will house 552 beds and an enhanced Level I pediatric trauma center with 90 emergency department (ED) exam rooms, and 24 observation rooms. In addition, there will be a new fetal care center for complex maternal and fetal health cases with direct access via a connector bridge to William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital (Dallas); eight rehabilitation and therapy gyms, 13 playrooms, two retail pharmacies, a juice and smoothie bar, three coffee shops, and a food hall.
The project was announced in February, with a project team that includes a design collaboration between HKS (Dallas) and Perkins&Will (Dallas); and McCarthy Vaughn Partnership (MVP), a joint venture of McCarthy Building Companies Inc. (Dallas) and J.T. Vaughn Construction LLC (Dallas), as construction manager.