STATE-OF-THE-ART
EMERGENCY CARE A NEW EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT WILL PROVIDE SAFE, HIGH-QUALITY AND EFFICIENT TREATMENT.
W
hen you visit the Emergency Department (ED), you want the right diagnosis—and you want to go home as quickly as possible. With that in mind, Community Medical Center (CMC) has redesigned the ED “from the patient’s point of view,” says Neil Bryant, Vice President of Support Services. “The idea is to bring care to the patient.” The first phase WILLIAM DALSEY, MD of the three-year Healthy Together
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renovation is now complete. “We’re committed to becoming the best ED in the region,” says William Dalsey, MD, Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. Here’s how patients will benefit: • There will be individual rooms with glass walls, which will help reduce the chance of infection. When the renovation is complete, the ED will have a total of 99 beds. • The air in the ED will be filtered to protect against infection. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital’s construction plans were updated to reflect what healthcare
providers were learning about infection prevention and safety. The heating and air system has been modified to provide additional areas with negative pressure, which helps to prevent germs from spreading. “This significantly reduces the transmission of respiratory-borne illnesses like COVID-19,” says Dr. Dalsey. • The space will be more open. Physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers will be assigned to certain care areas, but they will be able to see patients from anywhere in the ED. “All of the providers will be connected visually, so if a patient
Winter 2021
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