The new Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene will welcome patients starting Aug. 10.
Bruce Forster photography
SPRINGFIELD — Sacred Heart Medical Center and the PeaceHealth system are about to welcome patients to an expansive 422-bed hospital near the banks of the McKenzie River here.
On Aug. 10, 150 to 200 patients will make the move from the old Sacred Heart in downtown Eugene to the inviting new, 1.2 million-square-foot building four miles east, the largest hospital between San Francisco and Portland.
“It’s phenomenal — the science and technology,” says Bridget Carney, director of ethics for Bellevue, Wash.-based Peacehealth. “It will provide more access and a variety of services we weren’t able to provide before.”
Carney says the system’s mission remains the same — providing health access to those who can’t get services.
Archbishop John Vlazny presided at the first Mass in the RiverBend Chapel and dedicated the new building this week.
The 181-acre RiverBend campus, which cost $500 million to build, was designed using studies on architecture for hospitality, good health and good spirits. A calm, relaxing setting allows for faster healing, researchers say.
The RiverBend Sacred Heart includes a 32-bed neonatal intensive care unit, the Oregon Heart and Vascular Institute and Oregon Rehabilitation Center.
More than 100 former patients and family members joined doctors, nurses and hospital staff to help create the hospital’s look and feel. In all, 1,200 people served on teams that analyzed approximately 1,000 hospital processes, providing input on creating an environment that not only is efficient, but also less prone to clinical errors.
Once RiverBend opens, Sacred Heart will study how many of its new design features are really improving care. The hospital will look at rates of medication errors and hospital-acquired infections, along with data on length of stay, patient satisfaction and staff retention. The former hospital in Eugene will remain in use and will now be called the University District campus, with a 104-bed hospital and a round-the-clock emergency department.
The University District campus will house behavioral health, a unit for acute care of elders, inpatient rehabilitation and a center for delivering radiation to tumors, especially in the brain. A $97 million renewal of the University District hospital, which has served in its current location for more than 70 years, will begin in the fall.
Officials spoke at a ribbon cutting last week and lit an ongoing flame to symbolize the hospital’s enduring mission. The fire was carried from the downtown campus to the new site.
Speakers included Mel Pyne, PeaceHealth Oregon Region chief executive officer; Alan Yordy, PeaceHealth president and chief mission officer; Dr. Bill Moshofsky, Sacred Heart chief of staff; and Sister Carol Keehan, Catholic Health Association president.
Representatives from the area’s religious communities and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, the order that sponsors Sacred Heart, also had a role in the ceremony.
The ribbon cutting was led by Jill Hoggard Green, Sacred Heart’s chief operating officer.
Sacred Heart was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, founded in the 1880s by a woman who pushed for just social systems in her native Ireland and then in the U.S.
