Hospital touts bigger, better ER department

'We can do almost everything'

Jim Cobb, of the Lawrence Memorial Hospital information technology department, installs a television Wednesday in the hospital's new emergency department. A new surgical light hangs from the ceiling. All the rooms in the new ER are multipurpose, which will make the facility more efficient.

The new ER at a glance

Here’s a look at major features of Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s new emergency department.

¢ Private rooms: The department has 26 of them, up from five in the old ER. Each room also is equipped with a TV.

¢ Dedicated waiting room: The old ER shared a waiting room with the lab, forcing patients needing a simple lab test to sit with ill patients waiting to enter the ER. The waiting room also will be staffed by an EMT, allowing a preliminary medical assessment to begin right away.

¢ New entrance: The department will be on the eastern side of the hospital, making it more visible from Maine Street.

¢ Covered ambulance bay: Two ambulances can fit into the heated garage-like structure. All entry areas to the old ER are exposed to the elements.

¢ Mass decontamination areas: The department has six special showers to clean contaminants from patients. In the old ER, large-scale decontamination operations had to use portable showers set up in the LMH parking lot.

¢ Mental health area: The new department has three crisis stabilization rooms, special areas for patients suffering from a mental illness to be evaluated. The old department had two such rooms.

¢ New doctors: In August, the staff of doctors in the ER will grow from 10 to 12.

The paint – a palette of trendy living room colors designed to make everyone feel comfortable and calm – is still crisp and clean.

The floors are unscuffed, the windows unsmudged and, to the delight of Lawrence Memorial Hospital nurses, the spaces are uncluttered.

In short, LMH’s new emergency department – a major component of a $50 million expansion project – is expected to immediately strike visitors with its new-car smell and open spaces.

But Gail Ciesielski notices the details, too – like the vending machine is finally in the right place. Ciesielski, the emergency department’s clinical coordinator, never liked where the pop machine was in the old 1970s-era emergency room. It sat with a worn chair and desk in a dank office that had been converted into the family consultation room. A room where bad news sometimes has to be delivered.

“Imagine sitting in this room with the pop machine wedged into the corner being told that your loved one has passed away,” Ciesielski said to a visitor of the old ER. “We’ve provided really good care here, but we all think we’re going to be able to do some great things now with more space and more privacy.”

Residents will get an opportunity to see for themselves – the easy way – at an open house from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at LMH, Third and Maine streets.

Nearly double

On March 6, doctors and nurses will start seeing patients in the new ER. Staff members said they’re eager for the move, which will take place at 4 a.m. because that is traditionally the slowest time for the ER.

“The current emergency department is so small,” said Joan Harvey, the department’s director. “It was built for 25,000 visits, and we’re seeing 33,000, and probably will see 35,000 visitors this year.

“There’s just no space. We have patients in the hall, we have equipment in the hall, we have linens in the hall.”

Visitors likely will notice the size. The new emergency department is 17,580 square feet, an increase of about 8,000 square feet from the old department. The number of rooms has increased from 19 to 26.

But Dr. Scott Robinson, the emergency department medical director, said that increase sounds small. He said most of the rooms in the old ER were limited to specialized uses – one room for heart attack patients, another for setting broken bones, for example. All the rooms in the new department are multipurpose.

“In every room, we can do almost everything,” Robinson said.

They’re also all private, meaning the days of being separated from another patient by just a thin curtain are over. In a nod to the times, the rooms also have small televisions to make waiting more comfortable.

Each also is equipped with a computer for use by doctors and nurses. The easy access to computers is expected to cut down on the time people spend in the ER waiting room. Instead of waiting to be registered, patients will be taken to a room, and a staff person will complete the registration process there.

New location

The new department also will take on a much more visible role in the hospital.

The old ER is on the northern end of the hospital. The new department is on the east side of the building, increasing its visibility from Maine Street.

“In a lot of ways, the emergency room really is the front door of the hospital,” said Gene Meyer, LMH president and CEO. “We really want that first impression to be a positive one and one of efficiency.”

Harvey said that meant no detail was too small for designers to consider. She said the wall colors – olive, pumpkin and other colors you’d expect to find in the latest designer workshop – were picked specifically because they’re “healing, comfort colors.”

All told, Harvey thinks the department will send the right message to future patients and visitors.

“From the aesthetics, it is going to look nicer,” Harvey said. “It is going to look like an emergency department that can handle anything that comes in.”

Lawrence Memorial Hospital

What’s next

Work continues on the rest of the $50 million expansion at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Directly above the emergency department, construction crews are finishing an expansion of the hospital’s maternity ward and additions to the intensive care and cardiac care units.

LMH President and CEO Gene Meyer said those areas should be ready to serve patients in April. Then work can begin on building a set of surgery suites, which will be on the northern end of the hospital where the old ER is. The operating areas should open in early 2009.

Work already is complete in renovating the hospital’s shared patient rooms into private rooms.

Meyer said the expansion – paid for through a combination of revenues from the nonprofit hospital and private fundraising – is a major part of the hospital’s plan to stretch its service area beyond Douglas County.

“All this will allow us to serve that regional population that we want to attract, and it will allow us to do so in a way that we won’t have to worry about privacy issues or capacity issues,” Meyer said.