Hospital planning ER open house
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on June 8, 2012 1:46 PM
An open house to allow residents to see the recently completed improvements to the emergency room at Wayne Memorial Hospital will give visitors a chance to see firsthand the results of the $18 million project.
The past 13 months have been spent more than tripling the size of the department from 11,000 to 35,000 square feet. The number of patient beds was increased to 42 from 22. Four psychiatric beds also were added.
The unit will officially open June 20.
Like other hospitals around the state, Wayne Memorial has seen a sharp rise in the number of patients seeking emergency room help, leading hospital officials to plan the expansion. When the west wing was built in 1991, the emergency department was designed for a capacity of 35,000 patient visits a year. But in recent years, the hospital staff has been seeing about 55,000 patients a year.
"We want to give the people who will be using the services of that new emergency department a chance to see it under circumstances where they're not stressed out," said Georgia Dees, the hospital's director of public relations. "It's really just an opportunity to let them come in and see what the money that we have paid to do this is being spent for and what services are being provided."
Guided tours of 15-20 minutes will be offered.