Emergency room open for business

Who would think that descriptors like "comfort," "express" and "private" are being used in combination with emergency medical care? Most likely nobody would have used them in reference to St. Luke's Hospital prior to its recent $33 million renovation and construction.

Monday, a ribbon cutting was held to mark the completion of upgrades to St. Luke's over the past three years that have improved the urgent health-care environment for both patients and staff.

"I've been expecting to hear a phrase you don't often hear, 'Welcome to the ER!" U.S. Rep. Barney Frank joked to a standing-room-only crowd.

However, Southcoast Health System President and CEO John B. Day did exclaim, "Welcome to the new St. Luke's!" He'd been waiting a long time to utter those words, he said, commenting that the renovated and expanded hospital will have "a direct impact on every single person in our community, our region."

Rep. Frank, D-Mass., pointed out funds for the hospital project were secured thanks to the much-maligned practice of "earmarking" monies in a state appropriations bill specifically to cover the costs. Health-care expenses have grown, he said, "and the single biggest reason is that we're buying health care that we couldn't buy 20 years ago. The quality of what you can buy has increased."

The often-touted, bigger-city hospitals are no longer necessarily delivering superior medical services, according to state Sen. Mark C.W. Montigny, D-New Bedford. "Today, ironically, we have some of the best health-care centers in Boston saying they can do it better, but the best friend of patients and taxpayers is the community hospital (like St. Luke's)," Sen. Montigny said.

Immediately evident to hospital visitors are the improvements to the St. Luke's Emergency Department, which is one of the busiest in the state, treating 73,000 patients every year compared to the national average of 25,000.

Originally designed to accommodate 130 patients a day, St. Luke's Emergency Department has been taking care of upwards of 200 patients a day. It is now fully equipped for as many as 100,000 patients a year.

Space has almost doubled from 17,000 to 30,000 square feet, and so have the number of treatment bays, jumping from 34 to 51. There are five separate treatment teams and distinct treatment areas assigned according to the acuity of patients' needs. There is a separate triage area for ambulance admissions versus walk-ins.

A more speedy process is another key improvement. For minor problems, treatment times have been cut from 160 minutes to 80 since there is now a fast-track system that keeps non-acute patients from vying for attention from the same doctors treating critical medical emergencies.

For more involved cases, it still may take four hours before patients are released depending on how many diagnostic tests they need. But, the Emergency Department now has its own x-ray and CT scan machines.

Mayor Scott Lang said the Emergency Department is only the "tip of the iceberg" in terms of the hospital construction project.

Renovations to three inpatient floors include 33 new beds with 19 private rooms. For contagious patients there are now isolation rooms. Special accommodations for hospice patients include comfortable sitting areas for families. The units are designed with what the hospital describes as "race track" floor layouts.

A new two-room cardiac catheterization laboratory means twice as many heart patients can be cared for at the same time.

That expansion is particularly important as New Bedford has been identified by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as having one of the highest cardiac mortality rates in the state, St. Luke's spokesperson Joyce Brennan explained.

source:www.southcoasttoday.com