By Healthcare Facilities Today

One of America’s largest safety net health systems opened its doors recently to the nation’s newest urban public hospital campus, one on-track to become the country’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver campus, according to an article on the Medical Construction & Design magazine website.

This marks the first time in more than 40 years that a completely new Indianapolis downtown hospital campus has opened. Dec. 7, 2013, was the official first day for the new Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital and the final day of operation for Wishard Memorial Hospital, which operated for more than 150 years just east of the new Eskenazi Health campus. Of the more than 1,000 public hospitals in America, Wishard to Eskenazi Hospital is the first new complete public hospital campus relocation in more than a decade, dating back to when Chicago’s John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital opened to replace Cook County Hospital in 2002, the article said.

In a coordinated process involving Eskenazi Health, Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services, the U.S. Navy Reserves, the Indiana National Guard, MESH (formerly known as Managed Emergency Surge for Healthcare), hundreds of volunteers and ambulances from across Central Indiana, Wishard patients moved to the Eskenazi Health campus beginning at 7 a.m. on Dec. 7 and finished hours ahead of schedule just after 2 p.m. Two days later, the Eskenazi Health Outpatient Care Center opened for patient appointments, according to the article.

With features such as a sky farm on the rooftop of the Outpatient Care Center, the Eskenazi Health campus is also on pace to achieve LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for the entire campus. This distinction would make it the first such health campus in the United States registered publicly in the national LEED database. Eskenazi Health anticipates final U.S.G.B.C. certification in 2014.

Read the article.