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Tour stop #16:
Troutdale gears up for the next
hundred
 What timing —
the Tour rolls through town as Troutdale
celebrates its 100th birthday. The centennial is
marked by a confluence of renewal projects, which
Tour guests will hear about in some detail as
they check out what’s in the works. Under
the broad theme of “connections,”
here are a few elements of Troutdale’s new
vision we’ll see:
* The Sandy River Connections Project completes
and connects the area’s network of hiking
and biking trails. With better access to trails
and parks and a direct route for cyclists to the
Historic Columbia River Highway, the City of
Troutdale’s John Anderson expects the
improvements to boost the city’s status as
“a jumping off point to scenic areas in the
gorge.”
* Once the site of the old sewage treatment
plant, riverfront property on the Sandy River is
slated for mixed-use development. A walking
bridge over the train tracks will connect the
property and outlet mall behind it to
downtown.
* Former superfund site, the Alcoa plant is being
redeveloped to get ready for a major FedEx
distribution center that’s slated to bring
800-900 jobs to Troutdale. Anderson hope the
presence of a Fortune 500 company will entice
others to the area.
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Community Spotlight
Tour stop #4:
Springfield
The future of health
care
Coming
to Springfield? Pack your work
boots.
Boots — and hard hats — will
be the dress of the day for the exclusive
tour of PeaceHealth’s new RiverBend
hospital, where guests and the press will
take the inaugural tour of the new
hospital. (The hard hats will be
provided, but guests must wear hard-soled
shoes — “a hiking boot or
better.”)
RiverBend, slated to open next spring, is
remarkable for its complete rethinking of
traditional hospital design and the ways
hospitals deliver care. The reconception
took the work of 110 teams, who
considered things such as the positioning
of departments and the configuration of
patient rooms.
“Almost all the decisions related
to design were based on science,”
says Brian Terrett, director of public
affairs and communications for
PeaceHealth Oregon Region.
To speed recovery, every patient space
(even in the ER and intensive care) is
designed for a single patient, and a sink
by every room’s door will reduce
infection. Even patient wristbands have a
new twist, a barcode designed to prevent
medication errors. All patient rooms have
outside views — some of the
McKenzie River and Three Sisters.
RiverBend is a trendsetter. While other
hospitals are adopting some of these
features, says Terrett, “We are one
of the only ones bringing all of it
together.”
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