St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, a Boston University teaching hospital, is a 308-bed medical center, with healthcare specialties ranging from cardiac surgery to neonatology. A new med/surg unit was added in April 2021 to help answer growing demand for care in the community.
The unit is located on the sixth floor of the hospital’s Connell Building, which was built in 2009 with shell space included within the upper level to add patient beds later when increased demand required. While a conceptual design of this unit had been completed in prior years, the hospital did not begin full design in earnest until March of 2020. The overall organization of the unit provides separate circulation paths for patients and staff with a focus on noise reduction for patients and their guests. Patient rooms also feature current best-practice design solutions to minimize the transmission of airborne and surface-based pathogens, given the heightened concerns around these issued amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Led by the design team at HED (Boston), the completion of this new med/surg unit added 16 patient beds, including two, large isolation rooms, to the hospital’s existing 140 med/surg bed count. The project was designed in 30 days to add flexible, acuity-adaptable rooms as quickly as possible to support the growing community of Brighton. The unit was then built in just eight months by Consigli Construction (Boston).
Project details:
Facility name: St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center Med/Surg Unit
Location: Brighton, Mass.
Completion date: April 2021
Owner: St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (Steward Health Care)
Total building area: 9,730 sq. ft.
Total construction cost: $6.3 million
Cost/sq. ft.: $647/sq. ft.
Architect: HED
Interior designer: HED
Contractor: Cossigli Construction
Engineers: BR+A (MEP), Goldstein Milano (structural)
Construction: Consigli Construction Co.
