STPH Celebrates 3 North Opening
ST. TAMMANY PARISH HOSPITAL OPENS 3 NORTH PATIENT UNIT
COVINGTON - St. Tammany Parish Hospital held a ribbon cutting this spring for its new 3 North nursing unit, which includes 21 private patient rooms that incorporate elements of the St. Tammany Hospital Foundation’s Healing Arts Initiative. The unit will open for patient care June 10.
Each of the 589-square-foot rooms uses color and light to offer a soothing diversion for patient. That includes serenity over-bed luminaries that are equipped with separate settings for reading, ambient and examinations. These lighting effects are controlled by the patient.
In addition to the lighting system in each room, the foundation’s Healing Arts Initiative committee, which promotes artistic influences as a component of healing, has secured multiple pieces of art from local 
artists for each room and a special space in the new connecting bridge for rotating gallery exhibits. Local artists Gretchen Armbruster, Tanya Dischler, Jax Frey, Carol Hallock and Marcia B. Holmes were the first five artists to contribute to the unit.
Other elements of the wood-accented rooms in 3 North are similarly designed to reduce noise and help patients rest. They include decorative opaque window film to reduce light from the hallway, rubber-based flooring to muffle sounds and multiuse “touchdown” areas so healthcare providers can discuss plans for care away from patient rooms.
“Patients come here to rest, and the ‘touchdown’ spaces contribute to a quiet, restful setting,” said STPH Chief Nursing Officer Kerry Milton BSN RN MSHA.
Following best practice standards, 3 North includes a multidisciplinary planning and documentation room offering privacy and efficient work space for nurses, social workers, therapists and physicians; a family consult room to allow caregivers to discuss confidential issues and give family members a private space; and two isolation rooms to provide completely secure care to patients with infectious or contagious diseases.
The new unit is part of a two-and-a-half-year, nearly $21 million expansion to increase private rooms and emergency capacity, while introducing specialized areas of emergency care most needed in our community. Work started in November 2013 and is on track for a late 2016 completion.
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A full-service acute care facility committed to providing world-class healthcare and the latest technology, St. Tammany Parish Hospital delivers today’s life-improving procedures with the utmost care to area residents with emphasis on wellness, preventive care and disease management close to home. STPH is a self-supporting not-for-profit community hospital; it receives no ad valorem tax funding. STPH.org
PHOTO IDENTIFICATIONS
Photo 1
A nurse's station on the new 3 North unit.
Photo 2
From left: Local artists Gretchen Armbruster, Jax Frey and Marcia B. Holmes and Mary Lee, chairman of the Healing Arts Initiative committee and foundation board of trustees member.
Photo 3
From left: Greg Lemons, mayor of Abita Springs and STPH board member; Blanche McCloskey, St. Tammany Hospital Foundation board of trustees; Kerry Milton, STPH vice president and chief nursing officer; Dr. Adrian Carins STHF chairman emeritus; Sue Osbon, STPH board member; June and Harry Warner, chairman of the STHF board of councilors.