Hospital Visit
Saturday I went to the hospital. I was not sick or injured, just curious.
Santa Fe has built its second hospital a mile down the road from us. We've watched the construction of this huge complex all year, and Saturday they opened up to let the public come look at the fancy new place.
They held a community fair out in the parking lot, complete with rows and rows of exhibit tents, food tables, rock music, DJs, speeches, face painting, balloons, free box lunches, and an event where you dance on a stage laid with bubble wrap, which was amazingly therapeutic.
Hundreds of families came out on a sunny, nice afternoon and it was festive. Yellow school buses zipped around ferrying the crowds to remote parking, but I walked there -- it was only a mile away.
Even though it's just a mile from our house, we don't see the hospital at all, as it's nestled in a low area below us. But it is visible from the other side, coming up the highway as you enter town, especially all lit up at night. With the parking lot lights on and the hospital windows illuminated, it looks like a giant ocean liner cruising the empty sand dunes just outside of town.
There were helicopter tours from the emergency lifestar landing pad, and guided tours inside the hospital. Or you could just walk around inside on your own, even into the spanking new lit-up operating rooms.
What a tour. Soaring open areas, a lovely healing garden with open air fireplace on a second floor terrace, a cheerful cafeteria, big lounges, bronze sculptures, killer views from all the windows of the mountains and sky, walking trails and a park all newly landscaped all around . . . oh my.
The actual inpatient rooms, all private, are huge, with sofas and extra beds for family, and tables and flat screen TVs. Tour guides encouraged lying down on the unmade beds to test the fancy gel mattresses.
What do I have to do to get admitted to this new hospital? I want to go there. I want to stay at this nice resort, although I don't want to go home with a newborn infant, which is what happened the last two times I stayed at a hospital.
The whole afternoon was just lovely. The September sky was brilliant and so many people were having a good time outside at the fair and inside ambling through the new facility, that it seemed like a fun fall festival, not a hospital opening!
Santa Fe has built its second hospital a mile down the road from us. We've watched the construction of this huge complex all year, and Saturday they opened up to let the public come look at the fancy new place.
They held a community fair out in the parking lot, complete with rows and rows of exhibit tents, food tables, rock music, DJs, speeches, face painting, balloons, free box lunches, and an event where you dance on a stage laid with bubble wrap, which was amazingly therapeutic.
Hundreds of families came out on a sunny, nice afternoon and it was festive. Yellow school buses zipped around ferrying the crowds to remote parking, but I walked there -- it was only a mile away.
Even though it's just a mile from our house, we don't see the hospital at all, as it's nestled in a low area below us. But it is visible from the other side, coming up the highway as you enter town, especially all lit up at night. With the parking lot lights on and the hospital windows illuminated, it looks like a giant ocean liner cruising the empty sand dunes just outside of town.
There were helicopter tours from the emergency lifestar landing pad, and guided tours inside the hospital. Or you could just walk around inside on your own, even into the spanking new lit-up operating rooms.
What a tour. Soaring open areas, a lovely healing garden with open air fireplace on a second floor terrace, a cheerful cafeteria, big lounges, bronze sculptures, killer views from all the windows of the mountains and sky, walking trails and a park all newly landscaped all around . . . oh my.
The actual inpatient rooms, all private, are huge, with sofas and extra beds for family, and tables and flat screen TVs. Tour guides encouraged lying down on the unmade beds to test the fancy gel mattresses.
What do I have to do to get admitted to this new hospital? I want to go there. I want to stay at this nice resort, although I don't want to go home with a newborn infant, which is what happened the last two times I stayed at a hospital.
The whole afternoon was just lovely. The September sky was brilliant and so many people were having a good time outside at the fair and inside ambling through the new facility, that it seemed like a fun fall festival, not a hospital opening!
Comments