• October 7, 2014

Vantage Providing Technology Services for the New Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Patient Tower

Vantage Providing Technology Services for the New Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Patient Tower

Vantage Providing Technology Services for the New Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Patient Tower 1024 536 Vantage Technology Consulting Group

At Vantage, we’re driven by one overarching mission: harness the power of technology to improve people’s lives. That’s why, when Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, CA asked Vantage to provide technology planning, design and implementation management for the new patient tower they’re building, we were eager to participate. This $150 million design-build project was designed by HMC Architects and the construction is being led by Los Angeles-based Bernards.

How Did Vantage Contribute to the Project?

The project certainly plays to our strengths. Vantage has a proud history of providing workflow-focused technology solutions to many top medical providers, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A., California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda MD and New York City Health & Hospital Corporation.

Vantage consultants are working with Henry Mayo to implement a comprehensive technology plan for the new tower that will include state-of-the-art communication infrastructure to support Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), next-generation Patient Entertainment and Information systems, pervasive tele-health systems and a medical-grade wireless network.

Henry Mayo’s new tower project was especially inspiring to the Vantage team because it presents a special challenge: design technology infrastructure and systems that will support and integrate seamlessly with what’s already in use on the campus, without disrupting current hospital operations in any way.

The plan designed by Vantage provided system upgrades and expanded capabilities throughout the new tower, and accommodate future advances in medical technology currently being developed. Most important of all, technology in the existing hospital must remain fully operational throughout all phases of construction.

But most importantly, the Vantage plan ensures that, as the technology and infrastructure being developed for the new tower comes online, the existing facility will remain fully operational throughout all phases of construction.

“Henry Mayo is the primary medical facility in the area, and we’re designing technology solutions that will keep it at the forefront of modern medical care,” Vantage Project Manager Abraham Arakelian said. “But at the same time, we can’t forget that the hospital will continue to operate normally, treating patients throughout this project. The hospital’s existing technology must function properly and without interruption, every step of the way.”

New Patient Tower Will Meet the Healthcare Needs of the Santa Clarita Valley

This ambitious expansion is the next logical step for Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. The award-winning regional medical/surgical facility and Level II Trauma Center is the only medical center serving the rapidly growing Santa Clarita Valley, a 450-square-mile area about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital is named for the American businessman  whose extensive landholdings purchased in the 1870s became the communities of Newhall, Saugus, Valencia and Santa Clarita.

Originally established in 1975 to serve a mostly rural agricultural area with fewer than 10,000 residents, the hospital’s surrounding population is expected to top 300,000 within two years. That projection had administrators and local officials concerned that the hospital’s 238 existing beds might eventually be inadequate to meet growing demand that saw 49,684 ER patients, 11,727 full admissions and nearly 6,000 surgeries in 2013 alone.

To address those concerns, a 15-year master plan was conceived by hospital administrators, and approved by the Santa Clarita City Council in late 2008. Six years later, several of the plan’s designated projects are already taking shape, including an expanded emergency room, the hospital’s first neonatal intensive care unit, a new learning center, medical office buildings and supporting parking structures.

But the new patient tower is the jewel in the 15-year plan. Planning is well underway, with construction slated to begin in 2015. When it is completed in 2018, Henry Mayo’s new patient tower will provide Santa Clarita Valley residents with 117 additional patient beds, with shell space for up to 30 more, in a healthcare environment that utilizes the best in modern technology to save lives, ease pain and promote healing.

The facility, scheduled to open in 2019, will have a direct, positive impact on the people who call Santa Clarita home for many years to come – exactly the type of project the Vantage team likes best.