Louisiana Medical Center Campus Opens for Business

LAFAYETTE, La. — The first phase of the 45-acre Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center campus opened in June with a $211 million hospital and medical office building.

The project features a main acute care hospital, a four-story medical office building and nearby complexes that house more that 60 physicians who have relocated practices in the area.

The project replaces an existing 263-bed facility and features a 396,000-square-foot, 200-bed hospital and a 104,000-square-foot medical office. The hospital is designed to maximize space use and averages 2,000 square feet per bed. It is 10 to 20 percent smaller than similar community hospitals built in the last five years, says architect firm HOK. The use of hybrid exam and procedure rooms reduced underutilized space by 9,000 square feet. Diagnostics, procedures and the emergency department are united in a shared configuration of three 10-bed units for procedures and examination.

The hospital’s central design features two long corridors running north to south. One is a non-patient-care corridor and houses an 80-seat chapel, reception area, gift shop and a guest elevator. Patient care takes place behind the scenes in the back corridor and a security system prevents people without an access badge from entering that area.

The full-service, six-floor hospital features rooftop courtyards and a meditation garden. Naturally lit atriums and balconies are incorporated throughout the new hospital and patient levels features waiting spaces, quiet prayer rooms and family kitchens. Private patient rooms are 30 percent larger than those in the previous hospital.

The hospital is laid out so the patient rooms are directly above the procedural platform. The Medical Office/Ambulatory Care Center is attached to the hospital with an exterior courtyard between them. The heart of the project is the chapel, which is located at the center of the site with public circulation and entries surrounding it.

The second level of the hospital is a procedural platform. Emergency vehicles will arrive on this level were there is an integrated 19-room ER, eight operating rooms and the radiology/imaging departments, with 13 special procedure rooms that will flex for surgery or ER. A 24-room ICU is located immediately above on the third floor.

Nursing station units are located closer to patient rooms for more effective, efficient care. A pneumatic tube system facilitates delivery of supplies, saving time and keeping care at the bedside. The hospital will be completely wireless.

The project is not LEED certified per the client’s preference,” said Don Lemonds, vice president at HOK and principal architect. “However, HOK incorporated a great deal of sustainable concepts into the design.”

The list of green features includes building orientation, natural light harvesting, “right-sizing” the building so that it’s not any larger than it needs to be, and a site designed with a non-structured storm water system (bio-swales). Landscape plant selections are appropriate to the local climate and sustainable and recycled-content building materials were utilized. The project also features a “green roof” area and an energy efficient HVAC system.

About half of the new facility was financed with the organization’s cash reserves and a bond offering brought in the additional $100 million dollars.

HOK is the consulting architect for planning and design, and The Estopinal Group is the architect of record.

Lafayette-based The Lemoine Co. and Birmingham, Ala.-based Brasfield & Gorrie served as joint venture construction managers with a $141.7 million contract. Naivant Consulting was the program manager.

A master plan for the campus includes a third patient tower with 168 beds, a new heart hospital, a cancer center, an ambulatory surgery center, a Convent, a spa/fitness center, and outpatient clinic, more office buildings and a parking garage. The medical center can also add two more floors above the new patient tower to accommodate another 96 beds.

Our Lady of Lourdes is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, the largest locally owned, not-for-profit health system in Louisiana. It employs more than 1,200 people and counts a staff of more than 400 physicians active in various medical and surgical specialties.