Patient Care Tower
A New Era of Care at Ashtabula Regional Medical Center
On June 18, 2024, Ashtabula Regional Medical Center opened the new patient care tower — the largest and most extensive construction project in ARMC's history.
ARMC Foundation supported the patient care tower through the Advancing Healthcare – Today and Tomorrow Campaign which raised over $8.4 million.
Designed for Quality Care and Comfort
The patient care tower was designed using two guiding principles – enhancing quality care and providing a calming environment for patients and caregivers. Before construction began, ARMC identified emergency services, inpatient care, and surgery as critical services that were most in need of expansion. The patient care tower meets these critical needs.
Expanded Emergency Services
The Robert S. Morrison Foundation Emergency Department (ED) increased capacity, expanding the department from 18 to 24 patient rooms. All rooms offer patients more space and privacy during their visit. The Dr. Daniel B. Keaton and Dr. Samar El-Sayegh Behavioral Health Section provides four patient rooms specially designed for patients experiencing mental health crisis. The Resuscitation Rooms, in honor of Al and Sandy Sposito, improve care for the most critical patients as they are located right off the expanded ambulance bay. The ED also features a larger waiting area, including the ARMC Security Office, sponsored by Larry and Karen DeGeorge and Security Technologies. Caregivers are provided more space to discuss and assess walk-in injuries in the Martini's Restaurant & Lounge Triage Room and the HAVE Heating & Cooling Triage Room.
Advanced Surgical Care
The Richard S. Morrison Surgical Suite includes larger, more private rooms in the pre- and post-anesthesia unit and five operating rooms (OR) with the option for a sixth OR in the future. In addition, ARMC is the first and only hospital in Ashtabula County to provide robotic-assisted surgery, offering patients a less invasive option to traditional surgery. The da Vinci Xi robotic surgery system was purchased with funds donated by Richard S. Morrison.
Modern Inpatient Care
The third and fourth floors of the patient care tower are dedicated to inpatient care with 55 private patient rooms, each including a private bathroom and shower. Patient rooms are larger allowing equipment to move around the patient bed, providing space for physical therapy to be done in the room, and allowing family and friends to be more comfortable when visiting and to stay overnight.
Healing Environments and Family Spaces
Every patient room was designed with large windows which provide more natural light. Exposure to natural light has been shown to decrease pain, lower blood pressure, improve sleep, and ease anxiety. Each room also includes a “teledoc” video conferencing system that can connect ARMC patients with Cleveland Clinic specialists any time, day or night. In addition, each floor provides public and private waiting areas including two ARMC Medical Staff Family Consult Rooms; the Dr. Abdul Mumdah Shahed Family Consult Room; the Barry Shick, RPh and Lisette Altier-Shick, RN Family Waiting Area; and The Kendall Foundation Family Waiting Area.
Atrium and Public Spaces
Comfort and natural light were also essential to the design of the Dr. Shin E. Huang Atrium. The atrium features a wall of windows maximizing natural light and is furnished with comfortable seating for visitors and leads to the Dr. Alexander and Caroline Taich Public Lounge as well as the Huffman-Mayer Wealth Management Gift Shop.
Specialized Wound Healing Care
The David and Ann Hradsky Wound Healing Center moved to a prominent location on the southwest side of the patient care tower. The center provides comprehensive wound care for chronic, non-healing wounds and features two new, state-of-the-art hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers in the Dr. Olusegun and Abiodun Ogunlesi Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Room.
Education and Community Spaces
Meeting and training spaces are available in the Dr. Thomas and Louise Raffa Community Education Room on the first floor and the Rob and Heather Schimmelpfennig Conference Room on the third floor.
Photos by Brad Feinknopf