Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation invites public to Community Open House

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[May 13, 2015]  SPRINGFIELD – A community open house will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 17, for the Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation, at the intersection of Rutledge and Miller streets on the Memorial Medical Center campus.

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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