NMC Commentary
06.01.2017

Will NMC Have Two Entrances at the Front?

In effect, yes, once construction at the front of NMC’s campus is complete later this summer, there will be two prominent public entrances into NMC facing Fairfield Street. I appreciate this opportunity to clarify how the enhancements to our patient care environment are unfolding and explain how you will physically access our services once the next phase of new space opens.

Our Main Entrance, recently renovated in its existing location at the top of NMC’s main driveway, serves as the primary access point for inpatient care, surgical services, diagnostic imaging, and other hospital based services. It also serves our newest addition, the Medical Clinics space, which opened in May as home to Northwestern Cardiology & Pulmonology as well as Northwestern Women’s Health (our OB/GYN services). It is so exciting to hear that the staff, providers, and patients of these practices love the new space in this addition. The Main Entrance is served by parking at the front of campus and features the wonderful new Veterans-Sponsored Valet Service. During valet-staffed hours, patients and visitors can drive up to NMC’s main entrance and can proceed into the hospital as the volunteer valet parks their car for them.  In addition, the valets run a shuttle service to give a friendly lift to those patients and visitors walking to and from the parking lot. We are fortunate that these veterans and other service-organization members have taken on this volunteer service and look forward to its continued growth.  If you would like to learn more about volunteering as a valet, please call 524-1299.

The two story building with an eye-catching entrance currently under construction, located just east of NMC’s Main Entrance and accessible from both the main driveway and from Crest Road, will serve the as the new attached Medical Office Building. This exciting new space is on track to open in August. Its efficient, flexible space allows us to bring Northwestern Primary Care, Northwestern Urgent Care, and Northwestern Orthopedics to the front of the campus.  It also features NMC’s outpatient laboratory blood-draw (phlebotomy) service.  This new layout will make all of these important services even easier to access for patients.  This entrance will have an exterior covering to help shield people being picked up or dropped off from the weather.  It will also have ample handicapped parking adjacent to the entrance.  The new Medical Office Building at the front of campus features an interior connecting corridor just inside its entrance that links to the Medical Clinics addition and the main lobby of the hospital itself.  This will prove to be a very convenient path for those using handicapped parking to access the clinics and hospital services. Please watch for announcements of the move of these practices and services and the opening of this entrance and its parking.  Again, we expect that to occur in August. To stay up to date on the progress of construction, visit the NMC website.  There is a link at the bottom of our main page or you can access updates directly at: https://www.northwesternmedicalcenter.org/about-nmc/who-we-are/construction-updates/

As the work on the new Medical Office Building continues, we have settled into the first half of our new Progressive Care Unit (includes our ICU and Medical Surgical beds) which opened in April and features all private rooms for our inpatients. The privacy and restfulness of the private rooms is proving to be such a pleasure for our patients and their loved ones.  The efficiency and the flexibility of the new space is delivering the additional benefits that we anticipated in our design process. We are currently renovating the existing Medical/Surgical rooms to convert them into all private rooms as they represent the second half of the Progressive Care Unit.  This work is expected to be complete later this fall.

Once the construction and renovation is done, we will hold a public open house to celebrate all of these remarkable enhancements to our patient care environment that better position NMC to keep pace with growing and changing community needs and approaches to care. Thank you for your patience during these improvements and for your continued support as we continue to improve the services offered locally for your convenience.

 

— Jill Berry Bowen, NMC’s Chief Executive Officer