My pleasure! The Main Entrance at Northwestern Medical Center relocated to its temporary location at the NMC Conference Center on Monday, July 11^th. Likely through October, visitors and hospital patients with non-emergent medical needs will be entering the hospital through the NMC Conference Center entrance, located on the east side of the main hospital building. Patients with medical emergencies will continue to enter the hospital through the Emergency Department entrance. Last week’s column on the relocation of the NMC Main Entrance to the NMC Conference Center prompted some follow-up questions:

• Tree of Life? The beautiful Tree of Life three-dimensional wall sculpture which honors certain donations to the hospital has come down temporarily and is now safely in storage. It is being replaced by a life-sized image of the Tree of Life that will be located nearby to ensure it isn’t damaged, so it can return once the renovations are complete.

• Auxiliary Gift Shop? The Auxiliary Gift Shop has moved to a temporary home across from the NMC Switchboard and is still open during renovations. We so appreciate the creativity and flexibility of our Auxiliary in making this move successful so they can continue to serve our visitors and staff.

• Volunteers at the ‘Front Desk’? For many years, volunteers have welcomed and assisted patients and visitors at our Front Desk. They continue to do so, having relocated to just inside the temporary Main Entrance at the NMC Conference Center. We are so grateful that our volunteers give their time to help us provide exceptional care!

• Campus Ambassador? To help visitors and patients find their way as they first arrive on campus, we are experimenting with having a staff member – in a new role as ‘Campus Ambassador’ – in the parking lot to help answer questions and ensure visitors to our campus can find their way to the appropriate entrance.

Remember, during this phase of construction, all vehicle traffic will enter and exit the hospital campus using the Crest Road entrance (located just east of the hospital’s main driveway). Ambulances and emergent patients will access the Emergency Department using Crest Road, which wraps around the hospital building. Visitor and non-emergent hospital patient parking will be located at the front of campus at the corner of Fairfield Street and Crest Road, as well as in the Conference Center parking lot. Northwestern Cardiology and Northwestern Pulmonology have relocated temporarily to Suite 10 of Doctors Office Common. In addition, the NMC Laboratory’s outpatient blood drawing service has relocated temporarily to Suite 1 of the Doctors Office Common.  Northwestern Urgent Care and the other practices and services in Cobblestone Health Commons and the Doctors Office Common remain open and have patient parking. Through traffic can no longer cut through NCSS to reach NMC, Cobblestone, or Doctors Office Common from NCSS’s Fisher Pond Road entrance.

There is so much going on as we work to enhance our healing environment and create the flexible, efficient space needed to keep pace with our community’s healthcare needs! For more information on our progress with our construction project, please visit our website at www.northwesternmedicalcenter.org . You will find a link at the bottom left of our homepage entitled “Learn about Our Expansion” that will connect you to ongoing updates and background information. I deeply appreciate your patience with our efforts to make things even better for our patients! Thank you – and keep those questions coming!

— Jill Berry Bowen, NMC’s Chief Executive Officer