West County Hospital
Expanding a signature academic medical brand to the suburbs
- Client
- BJC HealthCare
- Location
- Missouri, United States
- Size
- 340,000 square feet
- Status
- Completed
As an extension of Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJC) and the Washington University Medical Center campus in St. Louis, West County Hospital delivers a broad range of clinical specialty services, a local emergency department and expanded diagnostic capabilities to a growing portion of the western suburbs. The hospital offers inpatient and outpatient care, including outpatient surgical procedures designed for shorter lengths of stay.
Built on an existing BJC HealthCare campus and replacing a 50-year-old hospital, the new building needed to integrate naturally with the existing landscape and carry the comforting and warm materiality familiar in all BJC locations. Design themes shape the arrival experience, celebrate the patient and create recognizable “moments” in the orchestrated campus experience. For the optimal employee and patient experience, robust clinical planning was done to ensure that space is compact, economical and supports efficient workflow.
Clinical features include 64 private medical/surgical rooms, four intensive care unit patient rooms, 14 operating rooms, (including one robotic OR), five endoscopy suites and two interventional radiology suites, plus amenities like a café and concierge services. Within patient rooms, patients have the ability to communicate with their care team, play games, order meals and more through bedside iPads. The interior spaces are calm and comfortable, creating a healing environment through themes of natural images and materials. The hospital has shell capacity for 32 additional rooms and two additional operating rooms for future demand.
Implementation required collaboration across design, construction and client teams, as the site had limited street access, rolling topography, and needed to be built around an existing and operating hospital and medical office buildings.
