The new seven-story Bill Holmes Tower at CHOC Children’s Hospital is designed to be one of the most advanced and safest pediatric care centers in the world.
Today, Saturday February 2nd, CHOC will be hosting a free community festival from 1pm to 4 pm outside the hospital on La Veta Avenue. With the multicolored, seven‐story tower serving as a backdrop, the public will enjoy appearances from Disney and Nickelodeon stars, live music, activities and fare from various vendors. Guided tours through the new tower will also be available.
The $558 million addition triples the size of CHOC, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, which will house many services that up until now, have been performed by the staff at St. Josephs next door. This state of the art tower will now contain “pediatric dedicated” emergency room, operating rooms, two cardiac catheterization labs, radiology, laboratory and pathology.
The 7 floors in the tower are beautifully decorated with calming, tranquil colors, each floor dedicated to a specific theme of the earth:
Lower Level: Fossils
First Floor: Under The Sea
Second Floor: Beach
Third Floor: Bugs and Flowers
Fourth Floor: Grasses and Reptiles
Fifth Floor: Birds and Sky
Sixth & Seventh Floors: Solar System & Outer Space
When building this state of the art facility, the experts were consulted: families, nurses and doctors were asked what they’d like to see in the future at CHOC. As a result some of the design elements include:
- “Same Handed Rooms” – No matter what floor you are on, each patient room and operating suites are identical to the next. This helps minimize potential for human error since nurses, doctors and other health care professionals.
- Private Patient Rooms – Since the spread of infection is usually a high concern at hospitals, private patient rooms help reduce the spread.
- Nurses Alcoves – Directly outside patient’s rooms are colorful nurses alcoves where the nurses can update charts and continue to monitor patients, without being physically in the room.
- Waiting Areas – There are waiting areas scattered throughout the floors, each with adult sized chairs as well as children seating areas and equipment to keep them entertained.
- Resource Center – A quite, multi-media area provided to patients and family for researching pediatric illnesses and conditions and a small children’s library.
- A Gym – patients as well as family members how have a gym with equipment, towels, and water where they can exercise and “get away”.
- Seacrest Studios – A beautiful multi-media center with the newest equipment for interactive broadcasting and hands on learning for the children.
- Turtle Talk With Crush – Designed to run live a couple times a day, guests will get a chance to engage in live, unrehearsed conversations with Crush, the animated sea turtle from the Disney Pixar film Finding Nemo.
- Shelled Floors – Floors that are ready and waiting for CHOC’s future growth.
The CT Scan unit features headphones and goggles that keep patients preoccupied while undergoing procedures. Below, pictures “behind the scenes” of an operating room.
There is a new patient outdoor play area designed to look like a beach boardwalk where patients can relax and enjoy the sun. Pre-Teen and Teen rooms that will feature amenities including TVs, DVD Players, X Box, PC Stations and much more.
To see more photos of the tower, visit my photo gallery:
Toddler Trails Photo Gallery
