Because volume in Birmingham area emergency rooms has consistently increased over the past several years, two hospitals have renovated space in their emergency departments to handle more patients and to provide more up-to-date services with new equipment.

Medical Center East

Terri Poe, administrative director of emergency, cardiovascular and cancer treatment services at Medical Center East, said the hospital has seen a tremendous increase in patient load in its emergency department. "I've been here 10 years, and we used to average 33,000 visitors per year. Now we see more than 50,000 patients annually," she said.

The department just completed a renovation that increased the number of examination rooms from 18 to 28 and added a new nurses' station. Another phase that has just begun will add another five examination rooms. "Two of the new rooms are large and can be used for major trauma or for patients who need to be on a ventilator or have a large team of doctors," said Poe. The department also has added a seclusion room for psychiatric patients and an isolation room for patients with contagious illnesses.

Poe said 20 percent of patient volume in the emergency room present with cardiac symptoms, and the renovation has added cardiac monitors in 25 of the 33 rooms. "The monitors print directly to the nurses' station, and we also have 12-lead EKGs," said Poe.

She said that while the upgraded space and equipment are major improvements, nothing can top good teamwork. "If you give an ER nurse the equipment she needs, she can do more with less," said Poe, "but the working relationships with physicians are just as important. Our team meets after every acute MI to assess the case and to see what we could have done better. So before the space and equipment, I think teamwork is most important."

St. Vincent's Hospital

When the St. Vincent's emergency department opened in its new location on the ground floor of the new South Tower, it had grown from a 14-bed facility to 29 beds. "Everything is new," said nurse manager Ruth White. "All the stretchers are new. New cardiac monitors allow 12-lead EKGs in each room, and there are new computers in every room. We are blessed to have all this."

White said patient privacy was an issue in the old space. "All the rooms are now equipped for patient privacy, and we can accommodate a visitor for each patient in our new space," she said. "The biggest thing is, with all the space we are able to operate more efficiently to keep up with the volume."

With two new triage areas, emergency room personnel can better handle high influxes of volume. "We can use two triage nurses to move patients more quickly, and we can start protocols and get things moving before the patient gets to a room," said White. "With the computers in the room, we register each patient at the bedside."

St. Vincent's emergency department also has a decontamination facility in its new location which means staff won't have to set up tents outside the building if a hazardous emergency occurs. "Several years ago we got a grant that allowed us to purchase suits and respirators, but we still had to use external tents. Now we will be able to handle everything inside our facility," White said.




June 2007