(FISHERS, Ind,) – IU Health will break ground later this year on an expansion of Saxony Hospital in Fishers. But before the shovels hit the ground, the hospital is doing a dry run.
I-U Health Saxony COO Chad Dilley says the hospital has focused primarily on orthopedic and cardiac care since opening in 2011. But he says the continued rapid growth in Fishers, Noblesville, Fortville and McCordsville has created a need not only for more capacity, but more services. The hospital plans to add its first maternity ward, along with lung and neurology units.
But Dilley says examining and operating rooms for the expansion can’t just be cookie-cutter copies of existing facilities at other IU Health hospitals. The hospital pitched a giant tent in its parking lot Wednesday for doctors and nurses to run simulations of an emergency C-section and a newborn in distress. Dilley says the goal is to spot problems or inefficiencies in the proposed layout: equipment that’s too far from the gurney, cords that don’t reach far enough, paths from one room to another that are hard to navigate, and so forth.
Dilley says the feedback will be incorporated into construction plans before work begins. There’ll be similar simulations later this month for the neuro and pulmonary units.
The expansion will increase Saxony’s size by nearly 50%, and is expected to take three years to complete. Dilley says it’ll be accompanied by a name change to IU Health Fishers.
