Rockford Memorial Hospital
Pediatrics Renovation
Owner:
Rockford Memorial Hospital
Rockford, Illinois
Total Square Footage:
13,615 remodeled
Occupancy Date:
October 2000
Construction Cost:
Estimate: $1,727,691
General Contractor:
Schmeling Construction Co.
Rockford, Illinois
Mechanical Consultant:
KJWW Engineering
Rock Island, Illinois
The theme of a little town unifies both Pediatrics and PICU. This first phase of the renovation included 16 patient rooms in Pediatrics and seven in Pediatric ICU; a playroom; and three nurse's stations. Each room is designed as an individual house with amenities including curtains instead of mini-blinds, recliner and parent sleep bed/couch to the make the rooms less institutional and more homelike and comforting. The uniqueness of the unit is evident in the lively floor patterns and the custom ceiling tiles that were etched and hand painted. Pediatrics rooms were redesigned to include private bathrooms and the flexibility to allow both parents to stay the night with their child and participate in their care.

In February 2000, the Northern Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Architects presented the owner and our firm with the Award of Merit. Jurors commented that "the playful use of color and form takes away the 'clinical' feel of a typical hospital environment." The project team at RLJA consisted of Paul Ollmann, Alise Rush, Sharon Rose Nissley and Scott Jensen. Members of the RMH project team included Catherine Luchsinger, Len Lotz, Lucy Martin, Betsy Baker, Marcia Stalter, and Dr. Bob Restuccia. Schmeling Construction was the General Contractor for the project and Tchoukaleff Kelly Associates in St. Louis, MO were the original master planners for the hospital.

The previous pediatrics and PICU units at Rockford Memorial Hospital had not been remodeled for over 20 years. Patient rooms had to share toilet rooms that did not all have bathing facilities. The central nursing core of the existing racetrack plan contained small spaces and a makeshift patient room that did not provide any convenient opportunities for the two units to conserve much needed space and share resources. Child Life activities had also suffered from a lack of organized space and a rather small playroom.

To help relieve spatial tensions, staff lockers and child life storage space were moved off the unit and put around the corner. Charting counters and nurse servers were built-in to house nursing supplies that previously sat in the corridor to hide dirty linens and conveniently store individual patient medications sorted by the pharmacy. Built-in casework for storage and reorganization of the nursing stations with an additional substation helped relieve congested nursing traffic and provided seating and charting spaces.
(From Top) PEDS Nursing Station and Main Corridor; Single patient room in PEDS with pullout parent bed in the background; PICU patient room; PICU nursing station; Activity Center.

Photos taken by Nels Akerlund