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 A brief ceremony and ribbon-cutting will start at 2:15 p.m.;
visitors can tour the four-story building from 2:30 to 5 p.m.
The 72,000-square-foot Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation (MCLI)
is a technologically advanced learning environment where Memorial
employees, medical residents and the nonprofit hospital’s physician
and community-health partners will develop and strengthen their
clinical skills and knowledge.
“This state-of-the-art facility will play a key role in fulfilling
Memorial Health System’s mission to improve the health of the people
and communities we serve,” said Edgar J. Curtis, the health system’s
president and chief executive officer. “The nearly 1 million
patients our health system has the privilege of caring for every
year deserve nothing but the highest quality care.”
The Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation includes a
16,000-square-foot Simulation Center on the third floor. The
simulation area features 10 separate simulated environments,
including a nurse’s station, patient room, operating room, an office
and an exam room modeled after Memorial Physician Services and
ExpressCare rooms.
 An intensive care room serves a dual purpose as a labor and delivery
room. Two rooms – a trauma bay and a treatment room – simulate an
emergency department setting. The Simulation Center also has a mock
residence with a kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom in 1,300
square feet; the area, which has half walls for easy observation,
can be used for training by ambulance providers, firefighters and
home service and hospice caregivers.
A high-tech ambulance simulator, which mimics on-the-road movement,
allows emergency medical technicians to train as if they’re
transporting patients to the hospital.
“The MCLI is designed to improve the capability and capacities of
the healthcare workforce,” said Aimee Allbritton, vice president of
organization development and chief learning officer for Memorial
Health System. “The Simulation Center, in particular, will help our
clinical teams improve communication and build rapport with each
other so they’re well-prepared for real-life encounters on the job.”
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On the fourth floor, medical residents with Southern Illinois University School
of Medicine will hone their skills in the Surgical Skills Center with the use of
computer simulators, virtual-reality technology and a half-dozen surgical-skills
training areas. The Surgical Skills Center is also available to Memorial’s
clinical staff, including nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
Other features in the MCLI include the 350-seat M.G. Nelson Family Auditorium,
multiple classrooms seating from 10 to 120 people, several creative
collaborative workspaces and the Food For Thought Café, which features paninis,
salads, soups, pizzas and daily sandwich specials.
The MCLI is one part of Memorial Medical Center’s campus expansion known as
Advancing Care by Design. The next phase scheduled to open will be three new
floors with 114 private patient rooms at the hospital’s main entrance. That
phase is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
Two more operating rooms will also be ready at the year’s end; the majority of
the new surgery area opened in March.
[Michael Leathers, Memorial Health
Systems]
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