Besides a spectacular view of the surrounding area, rooms on the renovated floors 9 and 10 of the patient tower on the campus of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center offer an impressive array of other amenities to patients and employees.

The technology on the new oncology and pulmonary floors is state-of-the-art.

The hallways are carpeted and whisper-quiet.

“This is beautiful,” said New Hanover Regional President and CEO Jack Barto during a recent tour of the renovated patient tower floors.

Both reopened in late June. Renovation on the other seven floors will be done two at a time. The project is scheduled to be complete by December 2010. New Hanover Regional’s patient tower will ultimately have 364 private rooms and nine semi-private rooms.

Barto said the input of patients and hospital employees was key to the renovation planning process.

“For us, one of our goals is to listen to our patients and one thing they tell us is they want private rooms,” he said.

The patient tower renovation and other additions to the hospital campus like the Surgical Pavilion and Betty H. Cameron Women’s and Children’s Hospital, which both opened last year, should allow the healthcare system to meet community needs for decades to come. More than $221 million will be spent on the three projects.

“We get more beds as a result of this and we get more productivity,” Barto said of the patient tower. “I used to think this will hold us to 2020. Now, maybe, it will be a little bit longer.”

A look at one of the family lounges on each floor reveals a television, refrigerator, microwave, washer and a dryer, along with plenty of room for family and patients to confer with attending doctors. Nearby is one of the new decentralized nursing stations that allow hospital employees to work in closer proximity to patients. A business center on each floor allows doctors, case managers and nutritionists to complete paperwork for each patient quickly and efficiently. The building is configured for wireless Internet service, allowing visitors to bring laptop computers along.

“The philosophy is based around a family-centered model of care. The caregiver can be at the patients’ bedside more. It facilitates more communication,” hospital spokeswoman Carolyn Fisher said.

Three secure medication-dispensing machines on each floor ensure prompt and accurate attention to patients.

“We can store a lot of drugs on each floor and our goal is to have the medications available (when) they are needed,” hospital pharmacy manager Sharon O’Beirne said.

Corridors on the renovated floors are free of computers, carts and other clutter, along with carpeting that transforms each floor into a quiet oasis.

“The soundproofing that comes with the carpet, especially in the middle of the night, is unmatched,” Barto said.

“The first thing about the renovation of the new tower is that we’ve really moved the staff as well as the technology as close to the patient as possible,” said Mary Ellen Bonczek, chief nurse executive.

The construction costs for the patient tower, surgical pavilion, and women’s and children’s hospital is funded through bonds, hospital operations and contributions from the community through the NHRMC Foundation.

“The people of this community came together more than 40 years ago to build this hospital and care for each other,” Barto said in a prepared statement. “It is our duty and honor to take their vision and move it forward.