A new way of healing

After my graduation, I was fortunate enough to land an internship opportunity with Sacred Heart Medical Center. PeaceHealth, mother company to Sacred Heart, has decided to build a second location for Sacred Heart Medical Center that is located east of I-5 directly next to the McKenzie River. It is called Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend. The original Sacred Heart Medical Center, located on 13^th and Hilyard, has outgrown itself. PeaceHealth has created the motto “One Mission, One Hospital, Two Campuses.”

The new hospital rests on 181 acres of land that is surrounded by trees and the river. It houses 386 private rooms all equipped with a view of either the valley or the river. It has 28 Smart Operating Rooms, 16 Labor and Delivery suites with the capacity to care for 36 infants in the Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It will employ 2,500 individuals and created 250 new jobs.

The Oregon Heart & Vascular Institute is connected to the hospital offering all its services under one roof—the first time this has happened in over 40 years. Another handy feature the hospital offers is its pneumatic tube network that is 2.2 miles long and travels 17 miles per hour. These tubes run throughout the hospital carrying lab samples and hospital supplies. Resembling the tube system used by banks with drive thru depositing, the tubes speed up the hospital process and significantly reduce the time spent on labs and delivering supplies.

This magnificent building more resembles an Aspen ski resort as opposed to a hospital. The lobby floors are made of bamboo and the center of the room houses a two-story stone fireplace—one of seven fireplaces throughout the hospital. 80 percent of the trees that were removed in order to build the facility were put back into the building. This building holds magnificent art from local and nationwide artists.

Sacred Heart Medical Center is changing the way of healthcare as we know it. Using architecture, art and a natural environment Sacred Heart is now geared towards a “new way of healing.” They are creating a worm, welcoming environment to help both the patients and their families feel more comfortable and relaxed when seeking medical assistance.

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