Efficiency, privacy, comfort and convenience are the main goals at the new location of the Women’s Health Center, a part of Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women, the only East Memphis breast center accredited as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology. 

The new center in 50 Humphreys Center, Suite23, is around the corner from its current location in Baptist Women’s Hospital’s physician office building. The new site not only provides a spacious, relaxing atmosphere for patients, but convenient parking, as well. 

“Instead of parking in the Women’s Hospital parking garage, patients will be able to park right outside the center in the adjacent parking areas and walk in the front doors,” said Beth Turner,administrative director of the WHC.

Planning a facility catering to patient comfort, privacy and efficiency was a top concern for Turnerand the management team. Over the course of a few years, they reviewed Press Ganey patient satisfaction surveys and held focus groups to discover the areas patients felt the facility could improve. 

The management team also worked closely with Judy Kneece, president of EduCare, Inc., an organization that trains facilities and medical staff on new methods of providing high-quality breast care. After reviewing the goals and ideas Kneece provided, the staff began to implement changes to decrease wait times and keep better track of the140 to 170 patients the center generally sees on a daily basis. 

Turner suggested customizing an emergency room patient tracking board to electronically track patients and help organize care. Emergency rooms around the nation use tracking boards to reduce wait time, move patients more efficiently through the care process and keep patients and families better informed. The management team agreed, and the facility became the first in the nation to customize the McKesson Emergency Room. Tracking Board for an outpatient setting other than the emergency department.

“We are now able to know exactly how many patients we have, where they are located, their appointment time, tests ordered, who they are waiting for in the process and how long they have been waiting,” Turner said. “It has made the screening and diagnostic processes go by much faster, and we are able to organize the flow of service in a much more organized manner.” 

After meeting with Kneece, it was time to begin planning the layout and design of the new facility. Memphis architect and WHC patient Carolyn Wills of Bottletree Design Group was chosen.

 “Carolyn was phenomenal in coming up with a design that would provide us with features that were not available at our current location,” Turner said. “She used a number of architectural features to help draw patients to the correct area and provide a spacious, comforting environment.” 

Turner said Wills’ design also included a more private location for admissions, so patients would be more at ease when providing the admissions representative with health information.

 “In our current location, the admissions desk and the front waiting area are practically on top of each other, so it is harder to provide that privacy,” Turner said. “In the new building, there is much more space, which provides the necessary privacy for our patients.” 

At the current location, patients have had trouble navigating the center. Doctor’s offices, screening rooms and waiting areas are sporadically placed in different locations, making it confusing for patients and staff members, as well.

 “Our doctors like to be present after ultrasounds, so at our new location all of them have specific ultrasound rooms located right next to their offices,” Turner said. “The technical station, treatment rooms and physician offices are strategically located,as well.” 

Changing areas are large and have privacy doors, and the three divided waiting areas are things of the past.

 “Instead, we have a gallery for our diagnostic patients,” Turner said. “It provides a more comfortable setting and spa-like atmosphere.” 

The gallery has a water feature in honor of Dr. Lester Graves, which imitates the quiet sounds of a stream, as well as artwork donated by breast cancer survivors and other artists who have been touchedby breast cancer. The signature piece of the gallery will be painted live by Baptist Corporate Communications department’s senior artist Richard Fudge during the center’s annual survivor event on Sunday, August 30. 

The piece will feature the new signature pink breast cancer ribbon with a large fingerprint embedded in the ribbon, because, “each case of breast cancer is as individual as a fingerprint.” 

Medical staff members, cancer survivors and professional staff will add their own fingerprint in the paint of the ribbon to designate how breast cancer touches everyone’s lives. 

The new center also provides two recovery suites for patients after they have an invasive procedure, an amenity that was not available before. 

“Before, we had to send patients back to the diagnostic waiting room to recover,” Turner said. “Now, they will be able to recover in comfort and privacy in our recovery suites.”

 The center will continue to offer a staff of female radiologists, plus three full-time and two part-time breast health specialists who help women diagnosed with breast cancer navigate their way through the treatment and recovery process.

The moving process has already begun and Turner said they will begin treating patients at the new center August 10. For more information about the Women’s Health Center, please visit womens.baptistonline.org/services/womencare.asp.

by Lori Simpson