A cure is coming this month for overcrowding and cramped space at Akron’s busiest emergency department.
Summa Akron City Hospital is moving its emergency medicine services into a new 85,000-square-foot addition, located adjacent to the existing 19,000-square-foot emergency department.
The new facility is scheduled to open to patients Thursday.
The enhanced ER houses 44 private rooms that are separated by walls instead of the curtain dividers found in the existing emergency department. In addition, the new rooms are more spacious to allow family members to stay with their loved ones, said Dr. Michelle Blanda, chair of emergency medicine and trauma services for Summa Health System, City Hospital’s parent company.
“We want you to have a private, healing environment,” she said.
The new space also includes 10 “triage rooms” in the front of the emergency department that will allow medical personnel to quickly examine patients and determine the severity of their illnesses and injuries.
“We don’t have a huge waiting space because our intent is not to have people wait,” Blanda said. “Our goal is to get the right care to the right patients at the right time.”
The addition is the first phase of a $49 million overhaul to the emergency department, which is expected to treat more than 82,000 patients this year. In addition to ER services, the space will also house departmental administrative offices.
The second phase, scheduled to be done in June, will include a renovation of the existing ER space.
When the entire project is complete, the state-of-the-art emergency department will include 76 beds, an increase from 43 in the current ER, and be more than 100,000 square feet.
Emergency departments serve as the front door for many hospitals. At Akron City Hospital, an average of 60 patients admitted to the hospital each day come through the ER.
Many ERs continue to face a space crisis as the number of patients they serve each year far exceeds the amount they were constructed to handle.
City Hospital’s emergency department was designed to see about 52,000 patients annually. Last year, the ER treated close to 79,000 people.
Nationwide, the number of emergency department visits increased 10 percent to a record high of 136 million in 2009, according to estimates released last year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ER use by uninsured patients and an increased need for medical services by an aging population are among the factors contributing to the trend.
As a result, emergency department upgrades are among the most common construction and renovation projects undertaken by hospitals nationwide.
About 18 percent of hospitals had plans to renovate their emergency departments or construct new facilities within the next three years, according to a national survey of hospitals published last year by Health Facilities Management magazine.
Summa’s upgrades to the City Hospital campus are part of an overall $96 million investment the health system is making to enhance its emergency medicine services.
Other projects include a new satellite emergency department under construction in Green, located near another full-service ER that Akron General is opening this March.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell
