Summit ER prepares for $8M expansion - Nashville Business Journal:

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The Hermitage hospital is seeking state approvall to add eight beds to itsemergench room, which would bring its total to 31. The proposexd project would givethe 188-bed hospital more room for urgenr care and make the ER faster and more comfortabld for patients, officials say. A key feature is its two entrances: one for patientzs wth severe injuries or conditiond and another for thosewith less-urgent needs. “This is all about the design and makinyg everything more efficient for the patient andfor Summit’s emergency room director Randt Farrar says.
“Privacy is difficult in an emergencty room, but the new design will offer muchmore There’s even going to be a small grievingg room.” Summit is one of several area hospitales to upgrade its emergency rooms in recent yeards — an effort to respond to the ballooninyg demand. Most of the expansions have beenin high-growth areas where more beds are needed, Farraf says. Summit CEO Jeff Whitehorn says emergency rooms have become so crowdeed in recent years that rethinking the design hasbecomwe essential. Summit had 47,000 emergency room visitz last year, an increase of 2,00p from the year “We are at capacity,” Whitehorn says.
“The expansion will help us keep Still, there’s an element of competition to emergency room saysHolly Kunz, directord of emergency services at in “Like all health care providers, ours is a competitive business,” Kunz says. “We are often judges on how quickly we cansee patients.” Saint Thomas completed a $4 milliomn ER renovation in 2005, addingv 11 private rooms and a designatedr chest pain center for cardiac And spent $12 million to expand and upgradw its ER four years ago. “The first impressionb is formed in the first three minutes of interactionb in theemergency department,” says Gary Vanderbilt’s director of emergencgy services.
“It’s the point of entryt for the majorityof patients.” Howard says Vanderbilg saw about 57,000 patients last year and has loggedx 60,000 so far this “As big as our emergency room is, we stil have patients in the lobby,” he says. “Thirty-eight percenty (of our patients) enter through the emergench room.” is building a new $268 million facility in Murfreesborl that’s slated to open in 2010 and will includ ea 40-bed emergency room, with the capacity for 50 “The emergency room is like your front says Monty Gooch, the hospital’s directodr of emergency services. “You want to make sure you make therighty impression.
The design is an important partof that.” One of the busiestt ER departments in Middle the medical center saw 63,000 patientse last year, and Gooch says patient visitsw are increasing 5 percent to 10 percenf a year. Nationally, the reports an increase of 5 millionm emergency room visits between 2004 and the most currentdata available. The increased visits stem from a decreass in primary care doctors and an increase in the underinsuredand uninsured, with more peopled poorly managing chronic conditionz such as diabetes, Howard says. “And the Baby Boomerws are beginning to flood he adds. “We are finding that patients are a lot sickerr when they cometo us.
The volumed have increased dramatically.”