New Sutter Hospital Nearing Opening In Sacramento After Nearly Two Decades

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — It's nearly two decades in the making, but now Sutter Health's newest hospital is just about ready to open its doors.

It's hard to miss the Anderson Lucchetti Women's And Children's Center when you're driving along Business 80.

Workers are putting the finishing touches on the new hospital and employees are getting the lay of the land weeks before patients will be admitted.

The center opens on Aug. 8, an opening that's been pushed back a few times over the past several years.

"There's a lot of regulations, there's a lot of things making sure everything is just right," said Dr. Dineen Greer.

The hospital replaces Sutter Memorial, which has been in East Sacramento since 1937. Greer says the new, colorful facility is about making the hospital experience less like a hospital.

"We've also got furniture designed for families to be able to stay with their children," she said. "So much more comfortable, with reclining chairs, as well as chairs or couches that pull out into beds."

Kids who are admitted for extended stays can get an education in the school room. Babies in the neonatal intensive care unit will be spaced farther apart compared to the old hospital.

"There is just a more family-centric, focused kind of area to take care of even our smallest sickest babies," Greer said.

Sutter can now bring in urgent patients by helicopter directly to the building instead of having them land at Mather Field and switch to an ambulance.

All patients have their own rooms that line the perimeter of the building. A maternal room nestled in the corner of the eighth floor has such a beautiful view, it's been dubbed the Beyonce Room.

"When people come up on the tours they say 'I want to see the Beyonce Room,'" she said. "I'm like wow, the word's really getting out on this room."

Staff say sorry, no reservations, patients who get the room land here simply by luck of the draw.

Sutter staff will move up to 220 patients when they switch hospitals on Aug. 8. They say it will take 20 ambulances moving one patient every six to 10 minutes.