2006 Pontiac G6 $199/month, 2006 GMC Envoy $199/month,2006 Mazda 3 $209/month at Tom Wood Pontiac, GMC Mazda By Bruce C. SmithExpectant mother Jennifer Myers is counting the days.So is the staff at the brand-new Clarian North Medical Center in Carmel.

On Thursday, they have big plans together.The $284 million hospital will open for business at 6 a.m. after two years of construction and weeks of final preparations.Shortly afterward, Myers will check into the hospital, and a few hours later, she is scheduled to give birth by Caesarean section to her fifth child, Caleb James Myers.Myers, 37, Fishers, admits to a little trepidation about being one of the first surgeries in a brand-new facility with hundreds of newly hired nurses and staffers.But she was reassured by her physician, Dr. Eve White, that everything is ready. Myers took a short tour of the hospital recently to look at the maternity and baby units on the third and fourth floors."It really is a beautiful place," said Myers, treasurer of Specialties Co. LLC in Indianapolis, a housing construction firm.Inside the hospital, 170 beds are made and awaiting patients. About 1,700 artworks have been hung or placed. Artificial grass and trees have been planted beneath the lofty six-story, glass-covered atrium. Chefs in the restaurant and food service are cooking up the roast beef and gourmet soups and desserts from scratch to meet the hospital's dietary requirements. Hospital officials have been conducting training sessions for the 500 new hires.At the last minute, just about everything looks ready, with some exceptions.A pocket of construction remains to be completed in a space for a health and beauty day spa that will open in January offering services including massage, aqua therapies and cosmetic surgery. And the interiors of some doctor's offices in the north tower are still to be finished.But as far as opening day is concerned, Clarian North President Jonathan R. Goble believes the 700,000-square-foot facility is ready for business."This hospital is state-of-the-art, with access to the kinds of technology and innovation that will revolutionize health care," Goble said. "It has been designed and built to have an atmosphere of healing and hope. The staff and everyone involved have already been working hard."He expects the hospital will serve about 10,000 patients in its first 12 months. About 13,500 will visit the emergency room, and 2,500 babies will be born during the year.Goble already is thinking about adding more towers of patient rooms and medical offices on the 100-acre site at 116th and Meridian streets.The complex has held several previews and open houses for the public in recent weeks. Many visitors have described the hospital as elegant, even majestic. The atrium floods sunlight onto large artworks and a simulated indoor garden. Many patient rooms have windows to share the atrium's sun and allow for people-watching below.In the final flurry of finishing touches, employees are triple-checking supplies and equipment. Nurses Vicki Barnett and Karen Akers are making up new cribs that will be in the nursery, nestled under a dark blue ceiling studded with tiny fiber optic lights that create the illusion of twinkling stars in a night sky.Patients will discover that they can use the bedside computer terminals to watch TV, log on to the Internet, read medical education materials prescribed by their doctors or send e-mail.After births, recuperating mothers can use the terminals and the Internet to see into the neonatal intensive care unit if their babies are in the special nursery.In the kitchens, nutrition manager Kathi Tuttle and chef Peter Fulgenzi, along with a crew of 80 food service workers, are stocking up with the meats, mixes and spices to dish up meals for at least a couple of thousand people a day. They will run a restaurant, a coffee bar and the "to-your-door" food to patients' rooms. They will also run an outside catering operation.For practice, they're catering parties, celebrations and dedication ceremonies in advance of opening day. They say their food is several levels above the typical bland hospital cuisine."We're not talking about six vegetables out of a can," Fulgenzi said.Formerly the chef of an upscale restaurant in Hawaii, he said first-class service is the goal within the hospital."Most of the people we've hired are from the hospitality industry," he said. "So they are used to saying 'yes' whenever possible rather than 'no' to requests."The restaurant is off the south end of the hospital's atrium, where construction crews have been installing artificial trees and grass in planter boxes and large clay pots.Artwork is sprinkled throughout every public and private space, from the large pictures and mirrors in the atrium and hallways to the small framed pictures, tiles and statues in the executive offices and the patients' bathrooms.The art is intended to infuse the sprawling building with a soul based on five symbols of healing, said art coordinator Sheila Hoover. The symbols -- circle of life, tree of life, seed of life, flower of life and golden spiral -- are repeated in the walls, the floors, mirrors, pictures, paintings, sculptures and etched glass panels throughout the hospital. The headboard above each patient's bed is glass etched to look like grass.Hoover, who spent two years planning the art, said, "The feel in this hospital is an elegant sophistication, but also a little whimsical and playful."It needs to be a place where people can put aside their anxiety and feel nurtured. They should feel at home so they can get well."

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