North pavilion, south entrance to open next spring at Good Shepherd

Frequent visitors to Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, take note: Two of the most prominent features of the four-year campus modernization project will be done next May, according to top administrators.

During that month, the hospital's new main south entrance and four-story north pavilion with private patient rooms will be complete, and staff members already are preparing.

"It's on schedule and all starting to take shape," hospital President Karen Lambert said. "We are planning the details of the move (to the north pavilion) next spring, so it's a very exciting time."

Part of those preparations happened last week, when some of the Barrington hospital's nursing staff took a tour of the north pavilion construction area to see the space where they will be working at this time next year.

Alison Wyler, director of the campus modernization project, said the new patient rooms mean roommates will be a thing of the past. Each private room will have a couch that can pull out into a bed for family members who don't want to leave a patient's side. Other features include new smart room technology to provide more information to every member of a patient's medical team and family.

"Communication is key to everything," Wyler said. "This will allow us to streamline that communication and make it easier on a daily basis."

Exterior work on the north pavilion is largely complete, and interior work is in full swing.

"There will be tons and tons of natural light, which has been shown to help in the healing process," Wyler said. "It will be in the patient rooms, in the hallways - it's just going to be brighter, lighter and more healthy."

Sunlight will also feature prominently in the new south entrance, which will be mostly made of glass. Wyler said the entrance will be enclosed this fall so interior work can be done through the winter and spring.

In addition to giving the hospital a facelift, officials said the new entrance will make navigating the hospital much easier for patients and their loved ones. The new Outpatient Diagnostic Testing Center, which Wyler called a "one-stop shop" for patients, will be just off the new entrance.

"Patients come to one location. They can have their imaging exams; they can have their outpatient labs drawn there," Wyler said. "There's all sorts of stuff in there."

Phase one of the diagnostic center opened earlier this year, and Wyler said it is about 75 percent operational.

Until the new south entrance is open, patients and their families have had to enter at the temporary west entrance and navigate a maze of hallways, which can change visit to visit depending on renovations.

To help patients reach their destination, a team of volunteer escorts offer their services daily. Other volunteers provide a free valet service to make up for less-than-ideal parking options at the west entrance.

Lambert said the volunteers have helped make the ongoing renovations easier on the Good Shepherd community.

"Our associates have done a nice job escorting people," Lambert said. "I think people have handled it marvelously well."

To help remind people the inconvenience is temporary, the administration has placed renderings around the hospital of how it will look when the work is done in 2017.

"We want to say 'pardon out dust; here's what it's going to look like,'" Lambert said. "Keep your eyes on the prize."

Lambert said the project so far is coming in on time and under budget; the hospital planned for the project to cost $274 million, but so far it looks like it will cost closer to $200 million because they haven't had to use money budgeted as a contingency.

"Certain conditions, like a bad winter, could cost you more money," Lambert said. "You want to make sure you preparing for different contingencies."

After the north pavilion and the south entrance open in May, work on other improvements will continue until 2017.

"It's hard to be energy-efficient in an older building, but we've done a lot," said Wyler, who mentioned the project includes new green roofs and higher-efficiency lighting.

Lambert said she thinks everyone in the Good Shepherd community has done a nice job working around the renovations.

"There's a lot of general excitement around the project," Lambert said. "We all see the end goal and the vision, so let's work together and get there."