ONEIDA COUNTY, N.Y. -- The design of the new downtown Utica hospital has taken its next step, with staff being asked to weigh in on 3-D, life-size room mock-ups.

Their input will help determine what changes need to be made for the real thing.

The biggest change with patient rooms is the size.

They'll be much bigger than the current rooms at both the St. Elizabeth Medical Center and Faxton-St. Luke's campuses.

They'll take up more space, but staff said it's worth it.

"The patient experience is everything," said Amanda Sweezey, the Mohawk Valley Health System St. Elizabeth Medical Center Neuropediatrics Unit Nurse Manager. "If we can create a safe environment for our patients and an efficient environment for our nurses and our healthcare providers to provide care. The number of rooms doesn't always seem to trump what we can do inside the room,"

"We only have one chance to do this and we want to do it right. We are going to look at the rooms, look at our mistakes and correct them," said Anthony Forlenza, the Mohawk Valley Health System Clinical Engineering Director.

The next step will be to bring equipment in and do trials to see if it's all a perfect fit.