ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Albany Medical Center has plans to expand its emergency department. The $25 million project will include a 7,000 square foot expansion that will accommodate the growing number of patients who visit the emergency department.
Albany Medical Center President and CEO Dennis McKenna said it’s expected to be completed by next year. The new emergency department will have the same patient entrance but with a different feel.
“We have reworked our emergency department entrance. We have a new EMS staging area making sure that we can have rapid turnover for our EMS colleagues and specialists. We’ve redesigned our intake and our triage areas, making sure that patients with minor emergencies can be separated from those with more complex medical needs,” said Dr. Denis Pauze.
He is the chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. He said trauma rooms will be fully redesigned and there will be a new six bed advanced resuscitation unit.
“We will have a new specialized airflow system ensuring we are ready and well-prepared for the next pandemic,” said Pauze.
20 new patient care spaces will be added and that would bring the total number of adult rooms to 74. And with more space, they anticipate hiring more physicians, physician assistants, emergency department techs, along with other personnel – although the exact number is not yet known.
“This is also a recruitment tool because if you’re someone who practices emergency medicine as a physician, if you’re someone who practices emergency medicine as a nurse, you want to work in a new state of the art place. You’re excited about coming in, working there,” said McKenna. He went on to explain.
“We saw the same thing happen when we opened up the pediatric emergency department, where all of a sudden we had physicians who were trained in emergency medicine and pediatric emergency medicine who said, ‘I want to come and work at Albany Med because I have a chance to work in a place that doesn’t exist anywhere else.’ So I think it’ll help us with recruitment for those specialists,” said McKenna.
McKenna said they’re relying on community support to bring the vision to fruition.
“We are going to make this a community sponsored project. We certainly would hope and expect that the community will understand the importance of this, since we’re serving a 25 county region,” said McKenna.
“This is an exciting time for us to care for you. At Albany Med, we are dedicated with unwavering commitment to the wonderful people in our community,” said Pauze.
McKenna said construction will be done in phases and expects renovations to be completed by next summer.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
