Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/646815
t m c » p u l s e | m a r c h 2 0 1 6 13 one day after the units were finally full again. She was chewing her last bite of lunch and Sollenberger made a remark about how busy they were. "At other places I've worked, the nurse might have responded with a tone of complaint, but she just looked at me and said, 'I know, isn't it great we've got our patients back?' To me, that says it all." Eventually, even the argument about Galveston's vulnerability to tropical storms fell flat—naysayers had to look no further than the Galveston National Laboratory to see that the concern could be more than effectively addressed. Known on campus as the GNL, the renowned infectious diseases research facility was built specifically to tolerate inclement weather. After Ike, the only "damage" assessed was a tiny bit of water under the front door. "It did extremely well, just as the architects had promised," Callender said. "We built the Jennie Sealy to the same standards, and we're confident that we can withstand whatever the Gulf of Mexico sends our way." All of the critical facilities sit above the major floodplain, at least 25 feet above sea level or higher. The struc- ture was engineered to function in the midst of significant utilities outages, with emergency power capabilities and ample water storage, and should be able to resume normal operations within hours of the passage of another major hurricane. Inside, there are 28 day- surgery rooms, 20 operating suites, intraoperative MRI capability, four isolation rooms per floor, dedicated bariatric patient rooms, 10 family waiting areas, and numerous physician work rooms and nurse stations as well as dedicated private physician and resident team areas, on-call sleep rooms and conference rooms. In addition, there are two unfinished levels avail- able for future expansion and growth. The 310 patient rooms are all universally sized—quite large for a hospital, measuring in at 285 square feet each—to accommodate all levels of care. Additionally, each room features a now-standard handwashing sink and ADA compliant restroom, along with a family refrigerator, two televisions to accommodate both the patient and his or her visitors, locking drawers for valuables and a sofa bed. Perhaps most impressive of all? Each and every room boasts either a view of the Gulf or Galveston Bay—some of which are rumored to rival even the nicest hotels in town. If the rooms sound custom-made for the patients, it's because they are. In fact, many of the amenities were added based on patient and staff input. Prior to construction, task forces comprised of UTMB personnel and members of the community toured fully-constructed mock-ups, offering suggestions ranging from the refrigera- tor to the exact placement of the clinical gases above the bed. When it came time to choose a sofa for overnight visitors, the design team placed three prospective options, accompanied by a ballot station, in the lobby of the John Sealy Hospital—as it turned out, the model they had originally planned to purchase came in dead last. "I always tell people that story," Sollenberger said. "It's a reminder of why we involve our patients in the decision-making process." Whether it is the architectural stur- diness, the clinical spaces dedicated to advanced education and excellence in patient care, or the many marks of evidence-based principles for creating spaces that support patient healing, the Jennie Sealy would not have been possible without extraordinary com- munity support and generous philan- thropic donations made by The Sealy & Smith Foundation. "We really cannot say thank you enough," Callender said. "I also want to take the opportunity to say thank you to so many others who worked so hard to make this happen: all of our staff, our alumni, our friends and supporters across the state and the country, the legislature, our federal delegation, The University of Texas System and its Board of Regents, the chancellor— everybody got involved and made the strong case that has put us in the posi- tion to open this beautiful facility." The Jennie Sealy Hospital will begin admitting its first patients in early April. It is truly an institution for Galveston and by Galveston. Even the art throughout the building is almost exclusively created by local artists or depicting scenes native to the island such as waves, sand dollars, palm trees and blue skies—a therapeutic and calming presence for the patients and families in need of UTMB's care. For many, it will feel like home. When you lose that much capacity, you learn a lot about your impact on a community. — DAVID L. CALLENDER, M.D. President of The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston