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The Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center (CRC) becomes home to new inpatient units, day hospitals and research labs in 2004 providing the environment that today’s clinical researchers need for advancing clinical science in a humane and healing patient care atmosphere.
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Aerial photo taken at the end of 2003 of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center with the exterior complete.
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2003 saw the completion of several construction milestones. By year’s end the overall construction was more than 90 percent complete with the building exterior wall system fully in place, the main mechanical and electrical systems completely installed, and the building interior work about 60 percent complete. The CRC will have 242 inpatient beds, 83 day hospital stations and approximately 140,000 net square feet of research laboratories and vivarium.
The new facility connects to the existing Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center. A hallmark of this original building is the proximity of patient care units to scientific labs. The CRC will maintain the tradition of rapidly moving biomedical findings from the laboratory into the mainstream of medical practice.
Design of the CRC reflects the parallel priorities of patient care and clinical research, accommodating the physical requirements of the latest medical technology while providing a friendly atmosphere and efficient environment for patients and clinical investigators. Four brick-and-curtain wall wings, paired around landscaped courtyards, will flank a glass-enclosed science court atrium that will serve as the core of the new complex. The six- and eight-story wings sweeping across the north front of the existing Clinical Center building will allow patients and scientists to take advantage of the views of NIH’s campus setting.
The structure’s primary design concepts feature:
Flexibility. Designs of the patient-care and laboratory wings are highly flexible with the ability to accommodate day-to-day changes within the given functional space. For example, it will be possible to change a normal acute care room into an isolation room, a single patient room into a double patient room and a normal patient room into a day hospital station.
Adaptability. The new facility’s design is highly adaptable and has the ability to accommodate changing functions within a single space. For example, a patient-care area could be converted into a research laboratory and vice-versa.
Healing Environment. The new design is intended to provide a warm, friendly and healing environment for patients.
Community. The new building will serve as a focal point for the NIH campus and provide opportunities for interaction among scientists and clinicians.
Steps away from the new hospital will be two facilities, The Children’s Inn at NIH (http://www.childrensinn.org/) and The Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge (http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/participate/patientinfo/family_lodge.shtml), home-like settings that will welcome families, loved ones and caregivers coming to the CRC. Construction of the Family Lodge will be complete in the summer of 2004 and the Children’s Inn will open a new addition, doubling its capacity, in the spring of 2004. A dedicated entrance to the NIH campus for patients and their visitors will be staffed by hospital employees who can greet and assist those arriving at the new Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center (http://www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/crc/).
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