COLUMBUS, Ohio – Building the hospital was a big job; moving the patients in is a big and delicate one and it’s what staffers at the James Cancer Hospital at OSU are doing this weekend.
The process of moving an estimated 260 patients about a quarter of a mile from the old hospital building to the new home of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute at 460 W. 10th Avenue.
The four-phase transition involves 700 staff and volunteers and will take three days to complete before the official opening of the new hospital on Dec. 15.
The critical care patients were the first to be moved, beginning at 6:00 a.m. Friday other acute care patients scheduled to be moved Sunday. A process that officials say took two years to plan involves overlapping patient moves that calls for the 16 transport teams – consisting of nurses and patient experience specialists –start a new patient move every six minutes.
The process also involves the creation of sending and receiving command centers that gives the staff a single telephone number to call to consult on triage situations that arise. The command center will be staffed 24/7 for two weeks after the initial move into the new hospital.
Nearly 300 “spotters” will be positioned at key points along the corridors where patients will be transported so the patient is always in sight. Resuscitation bays have been positioned along patient transport corridors to respond immediately to emergency situations.
The 21-floor, 1.1 million-square-foot hospital is also one of the largest cancer hospitals in the world.