Located in Salem, Oregon, the $285 million high-tech tower is the centerpiece of a three-phase Salem Hospital campus expansion.

The tower will include private patient rooms that can be transformed into ICU rooms as required.

Cindy Wagner, hospital development manager, was quoted in the Daily Journal of Commerce saying the private rooms would increase patient satisfaction, “but it’s also for infection control. It’s important for communication with the patient caregiver. People are much more open when they don’t have other people eavesdropping.”

The new 120-bed tower is designed to allow a holistic approach that encourages families to stay with the patients in the rooms.

Ms Wagner said every room includes a day bed that families can use when they are staying with patients.

She added: “If a family member needs to get away because of stress or whatever, they can get to a nice landscaped area or to a lounge area with large windows where they can have views of the outside.”

For added safety and convenience, on both sides of the patient beds there are medical gas outlets.

The first floor of the tower will include imaging, emergency department (ED), ED lab, outpatient blood-draw station, meditation room, coffee and gift shop, and escalators and elevators that transport people to the sky bridges.

The second floor will have a surgery recovery area, frozen-section lab, satellite pharmacy and interventional suites including cardiac cath lab and operating rooms, while the third floor will feature sterile processing, respiratory therapy and rapid-response laboratory. Beginning with an intensive care unit on the fourth floor, each floor (fourth to seventh) will have 30 patient rooms.

The basement of the hospital will offer pick-up and patient parking.

The south side of the tower includes a dedicated ambulance entrance, while the east side has a walk-in ER entrance and the northeast corner has the main entrance.

Turner Construction Co. has provided management construction services for the project.

The tower is slated to open in May 2009.