Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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The end result is going to be good news for Thomasville-area residents all the way around. Not only will a larger, more state-of-the-art ED improve the quality of medical care, it will also cut down on the average waiting time for an ER patient. A significant additional bonus is the new ED at TMC means more jobs available in Thomasville.
“The staff and I are very excited,” said Kim Smith, TMC’s ED director. “We’re very challenged now with increasing volume in the space we’re currently in, so once we open this up our turnaround time should drastically improve.”
Last year the number of patients at TMC’s ER increased by 13.6 percent, the largest increase of any ED in the Novant Health system. The current ED at TMC is 3,711 square feet. On April 27, from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m., TMC will hold an open house to celebrate the opening of its new ED. The actual opening will come about that time, but the exact date remains undecided and the decision will probably come at the last minute before the opening.
“Our new ED will include nine general exam rooms, six minor-care rooms, five chest-pain rooms, three high-acuity (trauma) rooms, a SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) room, a behavioral health room and two ortho rooms, one of those set aside for respiratory isolation, if necessary,” said Daniel “Danny” Bland, director of engineering at TMC. “You can compare those numbers to the 10 treatment rooms that we have now.”
It is also important to note that the rooms in the upcoming ED are, on the average, quite larger than the ones in the current emergency unit. As a result, the current ED operated in 3,711 feet of floor space. The new one will have over 24,000 square feet.
“The radiology department in the new ER is bigger than the whole ER we’re currently using,” said Jane Wilder, TMC’s director of community relations. “Ten years ago when we merged with Novant Health, people in the community were saying they were losing their community hospital. This new ER is more evidence that we are here to stay, and we’re going to continue to grow and meet the community’s medical needs.”
Traditionally, emergency rooms are located at the back or a side of the hospital. As anyone who visits TMC, or just rides by the hospital, can see, this new one is being built up front.
“Ever since Thomasville has had a hospital, its emergency department has been at the back of the hospital,” Bland said. “But this new emergency department is at the front, so it’s much more visible and much more assessable, especially to someone not familiar to the area.”
Needless to say, a lot of study and a lot of thought went into the planning process of the upcoming ED.
“I went to Louisiana, Florida and all over the Triad, looking at different EDs,” Smith said. “I read books by ED architects and attended a seminar in Pennsylvania by an architect on building EDs. I took pieces that I liked from all the sources and came back and designed the one that I think will work for us.”
This year-long process, which also included input by physicians and others, was enhanced by Smith’s experience working in Thomasville’s ED.
“In my 16 years as an ER nurse, I’ve always hated the fact that when we’ve had a death within the ED that the poor family was stuck in the middle of the ED, attempting to grieve, with a lot of chaos going on — sometimes even laughter,” Smith said. “I always felt uncomfortable for those families and felt that they deserved something better. Now we’ll have a separate family grieving room. Attached to it is a cold room where the deceased loved one will be. They’ll be able to stay as long as they want.”
Another improvement that is people-oriented is the staff lounge. It is much larger than the old one, which should be a boost for the morale of the ED employees. It also has windows that allow staff members to see an ambulance arrive so that they know when a serious emergency needs action.
Speaking of ED employees, there will be more of them.
“We’re looking for RNs, CNAs, liaisons, security and a secretary for the ED,” Smith said. “We’re in the process of training some people now. Ultimately how many new people we hire will depend on what the volume increase is after the new ED opens.”
In addition to having the only 24/7 SANE room in the county, the new ER features a pneumatic tube system that saves time by preventing the necessity of walking samples to the lab and a separate minor-care waiting room, another way to decrease friction and discontentment in the ER.
“We realize that patients become very dissatisfied in a lobby if a seriously ill patient is taken before them,” Smith said. “They think that it should go by the order that they came in, but every ED has to prioritize.”
As TMC’s director of engineering, Bland worked closely with the construction company on this project.
“We’ve enjoyed working with Rogers Rentenbach on the project,” he said. “They really went the extra mile to make sure that this addition was well done. They have been very cooperative and helpful throughout the whole project, so we feel like the building that we are getting is a quality one.”
No decision has been reached about what will become of the current ED once the new one opens. Management is listening to input from the TMC staff before deciding which direction to go with the 3,711 square feet. Meanwhile, there is more interest in how improved TMC will become when the newly constructed 24,000-plus square feet of space is ready to be used.
“I’m excited for the staff and I’m excited for the community,” Smith said. “The people here have been challenged and they have been very patient.”
Staff Writer Kevin Reid can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 230, or at reid@tvilletimes.com.