Departments, volunteers adjust to new office

Volunteer Services, along with the Service Excellence Department, will operate more efficiently under one roof after their operations consolidated from the Beech Grove campus to Indianapolis. Both departments are now located near the Women & Children’s Center elevator bank, just down the hall from the gift shop and Jazzman’s Café.

Even though both departments have moved to the Indianapolis Campus, many volunteers will remain at Beech Grove until the consolidation next March.

The Volunteer Services department has created a new volunteer workroom. With open shelving and portable tables to accommodate both large and small projects, the workroom provides a welcoming atmosphere for the volunteers. The space allows major projects, such as putting together the admission discharge packets for new patients to stuffing envelopes for various departments, to run smoothly.

Franciscan St. Francis Health currently has nearly 600 active volunteers, some volunteering at more than one campus. There are 335 volunteers at Indianapolis, 125 at Beech Grove, 70 at Mooresville, and 38 off-site. Five members of the Service Excellence staff have moved to the Indianapolis Campus while the others continue to serve Beech Grove.

New procedure areas provide cutting-edge care options

As the construction continues on the new patient tower at the Franciscan St. Francis Health-Indianapolis campus, the former ambulatory surgery and endoscopy areas in the first-floor outpatient area undergo a facelift that’s more than skin deep.

In December, a new hospital department will open for patients having outpatient endoscopy or interventional radiology procedures or surgery. The benefits of this combined unit include a more streamlined delivery of care for the patient and enhanced staffing coverage for these surgery services. The unit will have five endoscopy rooms, 16 pre- and post-surgery rooms and several pre-op exam rooms, all in one general area. Surgery patients will be transported to the second-floor operating rooms by the elevators located in the unit.

The new organization of these services will provide patients with more of a small clinic experience,with the benefit of being cared for at a full-service hospital. Patients can register and have their pre-op examination, procedure prep and post-procedure recovery all in one location. Private pre- and post-procedure rooms are arranged in small pods with a central nursing station, keeping nursing staff close to patients. Patients and families can even talk to a financial counselor if they desire, without leaving the first-floor department.

Hospitalists get an early move-in to 3-West

The new exclusive partnership between Franciscan St. Francis Health and Indiana Internal Medicine Consultants (IIMC)will increase the number of inpatients we serve daily at Franciscan St. Francis Health-Indianapolis. To accommodate this growth, the hospital recently opened “3-West,” a 12-bed unit in new patient tower on the Indianapolis campus.

The unit will be for the hospitalists’ patients only until March 2012, expanding to a 32-bed post-surgery unit after the Beech Grove inpatient consolidation is complete.

The agreement with IIMC supports an even more integrated continuum of care and case management.

IIMC specialists include internal medicine, pulmonary, critical care, rheumatology, family practice, infectious disease and sleep medicine specialists serving central Indiana.

A moveable feat: Beech Grove move of units, services slated for mid-March

Moving a hospital – even if only a scant seven miles from one location to another – is no easy task and requires tedious planning, flexibility and attention to detail. But that’s what is now taking place as Franciscan St. Francis Health prepares to migrate inpatient services from Beech Grove to Indianapolis.

During the week of March 12-16, all Beech Grove inpatient units will move. Unit-by-unit details on the unit-by-unit move are still being finalized with the overriding goal of minimizing the disruption of services to patients and their care, Indianapolis Campus Expansion (ICE) leaders report.

The new patient rooms are on the third-to-six floors in the bed tower.

“Surgical services will transition to Indianapolis, as well, during this time,” said COO Keith Jewell. “However, we will
maintain emergency operating room services at Beech Grove until all patients are moved.”

The Beech Grove Emergency Department will be the last patient care area to shut down on March 16, thus ensuring the hospital’s ability to respond to the vital needs of the community.

Meanwhile, October was a busy month for some departments.

• Service Excellence and Volunteer Services moved into their new area on the first floor, located in the former Emergency Department.
• The new surgery waiting area has set up shop in the renovated area of the old cafeteria, which will later also house a café, the Human Resources Department, and offices for hospital administration and medical staff.
• Endoscopy services and respiratory care are now making plans to locate to the former surgery area and basement of the heart center respectively in November.

New breast center opens with flourish

The newly finished Breast Center at Franciscan St. Francis Health-Indianapolis opened its doors last month with a flourish. Less than a week after it officially opened, the 6,000-square-foot facility was opened to the public with the Oct. 7 “Mammothon.” The one-day event accommodated 198 patients seeking convenient mammogram screenings for breast cancer.

The center, which is attached to the Franciscan St. Francis Cancer Center now under construction, enhances the quality of care, comfort and privacy for patients. By design, the facility offers patients a warmer, more welcoming environment while also reducing wait times for screenings and procedures.

Privacy is of paramount importance highlighted by separate waiting rooms and private changing areas for screening and diagnostic patients. The Franciscan St. Francis Breast Center provides a full range of preventive, diagnostic and treatment services, including:

• Digital mammography (screening and diagnostic)
• Computer aided detection
• Breast ultrasound
• Breast MRI
• Stereotactic and ultrasound-guided core biopsies

The Cancer Center provides personalized patient care with a breast nurse navigator, who coordinates each patient’s journey from diagnosis.

To reach the Breast Center, call (317) 528-8555 to schedule procedures. If your physician has given you a written order, please have it available when scheduling your appointment.