U-M Hospital growth continues with opening of $17.5M emergency room expansion

Posted on Wed, Dec 7, 2011 : 5:58 a.m.

U-M Hospital growth continues with opening of $17.5M emergency room expansion

By Cindy Heflin

A standard emergency care room in the new section of the adult emergency department at the University of Michigan Hospital. Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

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A standard emergency care room in the new section of the adult emergency department at the University of Michigan Hospital. Angela J. Cesere | AnnArbor.com

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It doesn’t exactly look like home, but the new wing of the emergency department at the University of Michigan Health System aims to at least reduce the cold, clinical appearance that’s usually associated with emergency rooms.

More importantly, it provides additional sorely needed space, said Jennifer Gegenheimer Holmes, director of operations for the department. “We were taking care of patients in the hall,” she said.

That’s a literal statement. A hallway in the existing emergency department was turned into a patient area. Starting today, hospital employees will again be able to use it as a hall.

The $17.7 million renovation project at the hospital has created 27 new patient rooms, bringing the department’s total to 90. The rooms opening today mark the final stage of the renovation, which also expanded and improved the triage, arrival and waiting areas and created a new space for psychiatric emergency services. Officials say the new space will also help them deliver care more efficiently and reduce patient wait times.

In designing the new area, the hospital wanted to do everything it could to create spaces that would reduce anxiety for patients at what is by nature a very stressful time, Holmes said. The hospital sought input on the design from patients, she said.

“It was very clinical before,” she said. In the new space the hospital put two-toned wood-grain floors, cloth curtains and used a decorating theme employing splashes of color and natural elements.

The last time the hospital designed emergency space, about a decade ago, officials chose a mix of private rooms and curtained patient areas, Holmes said. The thinking at the time was that it was better for nurses and doctors to be able to look about and see as many patients as possible. In the new design the goal was to provide as much privacy for patients as possible.

Designers also took care to make sure the new space is as functional as possible. They did mock-ups for the rooms and staff collaborated to determine the best location for equipment and to make sure there was adequate space. They also designed a central area for doctors and nurses to work together, rather than at separate workstations, as they do in the existing emergency department space.

The new space, which required three years to plan and a year to build, includes five negative-pressure rooms that don’t allow air from a patient’s room into the hallway or other patient areas. Instead, the air is channeled outside.

Coinciding with the creation of the new space was the move of the university’s pediatric emergency department to the new $754 million Mott Children’s Hospital. The rooms formerly used for pediatric emergency care will be redesigned for patients who may not need to be admitted but need several hours of observation before going home.

The opening of the emergency department expansion also comes as U-M considers adding more single rooms for patients in the former Mott building to expand capacity there.

U-M, like emergency departments across the country has experienced a steady increase in the number of emergency-room visits, said Dr. Steven Kronick, the hospital’s Emergency Department service chief. U-M’s Emergency Department sees more than 80,000 patients a year, an average of more than 200 per day.

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study shows that such visits reached 136 million in 2009, a 10 percent jump from the year before. A variety of factors is responsible for the increased demand for emergency room services, Kronick said.

“This expansion will help us better meet the increasing demands for service while preparing us for continued growth in the future,” said Dr. William G. Barsan, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Comments

BhavanaJagat

Wed, Dec 7, 2011 : 5:32 p.m.

The Reception of Patients : At Emergency Care, people arrive with a variety of problems and may have to wait before taken up for medical care and management. The most important aspect of Reception is that of positioning the patient in a posture that is most comfortable to the patient and that would not cause any further aggravation of the medical problem while the person waits in the Reception area. Sometimes, a large number of critically injured or sick persons may arrive and they have to be held until medical care could be provided. The main concern of Reception Department must be to position the patient in a comfortable position, and then record the patient's complaint, personal information, and provide immediate comfort like a cup of water to drink if the medical condition allows the same. This photo image of Reception area shows that the Receptionist is behind a counter and the patient is separated from the Receptionist by the counter. It shows that the design has given importance to obtaining and recording information rather than that of providing immediate assistance to the patient. I would prefer an arrangement where the medical receptionist receives the incoming patient and offers a seat, a couch, or other palce to keep the patient in comfort and obtain further information while standing next to the patient. Documents, IDs, insurance information could be later processed at a work station. The receptionist/s must reach the patients at frequent intervals and reposition them as needed and ensure that the position is comfortable during the wait period. Providing comfort includes providing reassurance while the patient waits and actively watching for any change in the condition. The seating arrangement that I find in the photo image will not serve the purpose of all patients and if they have other waiting options, I do not find any evidence for the same.

15crown00

Wed, Dec 7, 2011 : 4:17 p.m.

will it improve the wait time/

Bruce Spears

Wed, Dec 7, 2011 : 2:50 p.m.

Dear U Of M Emergency Dept, I was a patient that was placed in the Hall outside of a room -with a shower curtain between me and the people walking by. After that experience I stopped coming to U of M's Emergency Dept and went to Chelsea's Emergency Dept.. and was treated with equal standards of care and at times better than U of M. Most patients that have gone to U of M's emergency dept would say they would of liked to have a better dept first of all, second treatment without being exposed to people walking by, on the floor of the hallway. etc. It's about time the emergency room has been revisited with a new concept of floor plan and treatment, hopefully as the first place a patient comes to, it has to be up to the standard of the New Mott Hospital! I really don't want to use the new Emergency room but if I do I want it to be like the photos show for the new dept. Bruce Spears

Mermaidswim

Wed, Dec 7, 2011 : 12:13 p.m.

As a matter of public record, the architect who designed the work should be noted in the article.

Ian Demsky

Wed, Dec 7, 2011 : 1:48 p.m.

The architecture firm was Hobbs + Black. -- Ian Demsky, UMHS Public Relations

a2phiggy

Wed, Dec 7, 2011 : 12:06 p.m.

I hope that UM puts resources into Urgent Care in Ann Arbor very soon - for the tens of thousands of residents on UM's health plans, there are no urgent care options. Without such a facility, non-urgent care will continue to drain physical and human resources at the ER, putting truly critical patients at potential risk.