The facility, covering more than an acre, doubles the size of the previous emergency department, which opened in 1994. The new emergency department has 61 beds, 15 more than previously, and its own laboratory, radiology section and CT scanner.
The facility has also been relocated with the entrance now off Warren Avenue on the west side of the hospital. Adult and pediatric patients now have separate entrances, waiting rooms and treatment areas.
|
|
Not long after the new facility and new rooftop helipad opened last month, two mass-casualty incidents involving separate van rollovers brought more than 24 patients to the trauma center.
“We had 11 helicopter landings in 60 minutes,” said Michelle Ziemba, trauma director. “Everything went like clockwork.”
The new emergency department and trauma Center are part of an $184 million expansion, financed by bonds, that began in 2006. They occupy the entire ground floor of a six-story tower still under construction.
The second floor of the new tower, with 44 new medical-surgical and intensive care beds, will open in the fall, followed by the third floor, with another 44 adult beds, said Judy Dye, administrator overseeing the multi-year construction project.
Diamond Children’s Medical Center on the tower’s top three floors, will open in 2010. It will have 116 pediatric beds.
The hospital’s former emergency department is being renovated to create an entrance and lobby for the new Diamond Children’s Medical Center.
Comments