Lancaster General Hospital - Orthopedic Center
Lancaster, PA

Lancaster General Hospital in Pennsylvania determined that they could improve patient care and the outcomes of their orthopedic patients if they pulled that service line into a separate, yet co-joined facility. They retained architects IKM Incorporated of Pittsburgh to design a state of the art Orthopedic Specialty Hospital. Early in the design process it became clear that the opportunity was presenting itself to reshape the hospital¡¯s image by relocating the main entry and creating a grander, more hospitality like entry sequence. Thus, the scope of design was expanded to include a new entry and for the hospital to present a new front door to the community.

The project comprises 340,000 SF of new construction including a four-story building, front entry atrium, and 5-1/2 story vertical addition to an existing building.

The exterior expression of the new four-story building breaks down the massing and fenestration elements to be sympathetic to the surrounding urban residential scale. The front entry retreats from the street as a concave semicircular form that invites both vehicles and pedestrians through an elegant canopied approach to enter the building, drop off guests, and immediately enter a garage or take advantage of the new Valet Service. The street face of the pre-existing garage is screened with a new wall that duplicates the same exterior rhythm expression as the new building. With the new building and the garage screen flanking the new entry, tower/lantern devices are engaged to anchor the entry¡¯s radiused form and frame a fountain feature.

Upon entering the building the guest is greeted with a four-story natural lightbathed atrium, marble flooring and natural cherry paneling. Opposite the front door an internal water feature offers visual and acoustical respite. On the other side of this two-sided water feature is the relocated Chapel/Meditation Room, which offers an additional area for retreat. Other lobby amenities include a concierge, a gift shop, reception desk, player grand piano, patient resource center, gracious seating and a gourmet caf¨¦. This new lobby serves as the entryway for both the Lancaster Orthopedic Center to the right and Lancaster General Hospital to the left.

Perioperative Services are on the second floor. Open to the Atrium ate the waiting spaces with seating in two areas connected with a bridge that spans past the ground floor entry. The seating is broken into several discreet areas, there is an area with tablet armed soft chairs and data ports, quiet groupings along the windows, an acoustically secured children¡¯s play/video area, a television viewing area and a series of family sized ¡®Romeo and Juliet¡¯ balconies projecting into the atrium. Patients are greeted by a receptionist and walked to a private Pre-Op room by a member of the care team. The patient moves through the surgical process in an efficient clockwise manner from Pre-Op to OR to PACU and/or Post-Op. The seventeen Pre-Op and Post-Op bays are contiguous and flex between functions over the course of the day¡¯s schedule.

The 10 Operating Room Suite is organized with 5 rooms on either side of a sterile core which provides for an added level of infection protection and a location where the case carts are staged which facilitates quick room turnover. The operating rooms are identical and fully digitized. The multi-boomed 720 SF rooms have cameras in the light heads as well as throughout the room. Images can be transmitted anywhere for teaching, control or a quick consult.

The project also involved relocating the sterile processing department to the third floor with dedicated elevators to move the case carts for both the Orthopedic OR¡¯s and the existing OR¡¯s which are in an immediately adjacent building at the same floor level.