It’s nearly showtime for the third tower of the expanded William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital. Also called the Orange Tower, it is expected to open in two phases – likely beginning the week of Dec. 7, 2020 and then resuming the week of Jan. 11, 2021.

With anticipation building around the opening of the expanded hospital, Dr. John Warner, Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs, offers a sneak peek of some of the new sites and services.

Enjoy this virtual tour, and keep posted for more features about other areas and artwork in the expanded Clements University Hospital in the weeks to come.

Transcript

Welcome to the new expansion of our William P. Clements Junior University Hospital. In normal times, I'd be giving you this tour, showing you all the great things in this new expansion of our clinical services in Clements, but these times have obviously necessitated that we do something different, but I do want to take a moment to show you some of the great features of the building, some of the great ways that we'll improve the care of patients with this new tower expansion, and all the great ideas that went into this design.

The expansion includes a new 12 story bed tower, which will include 291 additional beds to the 460 beds that we had in Clements Hospital version one. The new expansion will house the inpatient clinical programs of the Peter O'Donnell Brain Institute and will position UT Southwestern as one of the leading neuroscience providers in the whole of the United States. Included in the addition is an expansion of our emergency department, which will increase our capacity there by more than 50 percent.

We're very excited about the patient garden here in our new inpatient psychiatry unit, here at Clements University Hospital. As we were planning the hospital and thinking about spaces, we heard over and over from patients and families how important light and the ability to be outdoors is and so we created this patient garden to allow our patients who are being treated in our psychiatry unit the ability to get outside and to experience fresh air and we're really grateful to Bill and Gay Solomon for their generosity in supporting the development of this wonderful garden, which will be named the Rose Garden, in honor of Deedie and Rusty Rose.

As most of you know, we visited lots of hospitals in version one and in version two of Clements to get the best ideas and translate those ideas into ways to improve the patient care and experience. This garden is something that we looked at other hospitals across the country and really couldn't find anything we thought really represented what we really wanted our patients to experience, so we expect that other hospitals will be contacting us to come and visit this magnificent space, to see the great benefit that it provides to patients and their families.

One of the great strengths at UT Southwestern is our physicians and other providers coming together to care for patients in a team based multidisciplinary way. Particularly in a procedural environment, that's critically important, as you integrate different types of physicians and also different types of technologies to make a big difference in how we improve outcomes for patients. This collaboration between doctors and other providers using the very best technology and integrating research is really the idea behind the O'Donnell Brain Institute. In designing these spaces, we use virtual reality to really think through what information we could gather during a surgery or procedure and how our physicians might use that to improve the outcome of the procedure. That really is the strength of this whole suite, taking imaging during the procedure, after the procedure and using that information to guide the therapy.

The intensive care unit can be an intimidating environment, particularly if you had been admitted with a stroke, brain surgery, or another neuroscience problem. We've worked hard here in this expansion of Clement's Hospital to take the lessons that we learned from patients and families in the first version of Clements and really try to design a room that's comforting and also meets the needs of the patient, their caregivers and their families. That includes attention to technologies that they can use to connect with their families and the environment of the room that is optimistic and leaves a warm feeling and an environment really focused on healing.

When you do get a chance to visit the hospital in person, you'll notice many of the things that Clements University Hospital is known for, a fantastic art collection that really adds to the healing experience of our patients and their families and those who come to visit them, all of this natural light, which also adds to the healing experience and a bright, optimistic atmosphere that really focuses on wellness and healing.

We're really proud of the hospital expansion and the contribution that we'll make to the health of our community. We're also excited about the contribution it will make to our three missions, educate, discover and heal and as we look to the future, you can look just across the street and see the next buildings as part of our clinical and research growth here at
UT Southwestern, our new cancer center and the first research building dedicated to the Peter O'Donnell Junior Brains too.

Thank you for joining the virtual tour. I look forward to showing you the place in person.