NuHealth Opens New $36 Million ED

NuHealth Women's Care 

Nassau University Medical Center

2201 Hempstead Turnpike, East Meadow, NY 11554

www.nuhealth.net     516-572-5809

 

Despite our fascination with television programs depicting the fast “life or death” action of a major regional ER, a personal trip to the emergency department is hardly entertaining. But visitors to NuHealth’s new $36 million Emergency Department at Nassau University Medical Center are in for a pleasant surprise. Replacing the former ED in the hospital’s lower level, the new Emergency Department on NUMC’s first floor is a bright, modern and spacious facility that handles both patients and their families with special care.

“We want our patients to be seen as quickly as possible, and we want their loved ones to have a more pleasant place to wait,” said Dr. Anthony Boutin, chair of NuHealth’s Department of Emergency Medicine. “Everything about the new ED has been designed to improve the patient experience while allowing our doctors and nurses to perform lifesaving interventions in the most modern setting available.”

One of the more impressive — and useful — additions to the NuHealth Emergency Department is the new 320-slice CT Scanner. Able to get a faster, more accurate view of damaged limbs and body parts than scanners in EDs anywhere else on Long Island, the 320-slice CT scanner is a major step up in efficiency for the NuHealth ED.

“Having this powerful new tool right on site in the ED will allow us to make faster, more accurate diagnoses of problems ranging from as simple as a fracture to as complex as a brain aneurysm,” said Dr. Victor Scarmato, chair of the Department of Radiology. “Because our ED and Trauma Center receive the area’s worst victims of accident and injury, it is imperative that we do whatever it takes to speed the diagnostic process and begin appropriate treatment as soon as possible.”

A quick survey of the new Emergency Department demonstrates just how significant the improvements have been. With 32 private, glass-enclosed treatment rooms, the ED can provide simultaneous care to more people than ever. In the event of a mass casualty event, such as a plane crash or environmental disaster, each room can easily be rearranged to accommodate two patients at once. The rooms are laid out in an oval around a central nursing station, allowing staff to quickly move from patient to patient.

The new ED also includes three triage rooms, a Level I critical care trauma room, imaging areas, two resuscitation rooms, 12 bathrooms, three isolation rooms, a cast room, crisis intervention unit area and an OB/GYN room. State-of-the-art medical monitoring equipment and an increase from 28 to 100 separate computer stations, along with a new Picture Archiving and Communications System provide NuHealth’s ED professionals with access to critical, lifesaving information at their fingertips.

The entrances to the Emergency Department have changed as well. Ambulances will enter through a new drive on the north side of NUMC, where there will also be an entry for acute patients and parking spaces for seven ambulances. The hospital entrance on the south side of NUMC (facing Hempstead Turnpike) is now dedicated as a walk-in entrance to the Emergency Department.

Changes to the Emergency Department at NUMC will continue throughout 2011. With the opening of the new ED on the main floor of the hospital, the former ground floor ED will be repurposed to create completely separate areas for psychiatric emergencies and treatment of prisoners. Of particular interest to NuHealth patients will be the opening of a new Adult/Pediatric Fast-Track Care Center, planned for late 2011. The new fast-track center in the old ED area is designed to handle patients requiring urgent, but not necessarily “emergency” treatment, and will help ensure the fastest, best care available to patients in the main ED.

When the second phase is completed, the entire Emergency Department will be triple its former size.

“This latest milestone in NuHealth’s modernization program marks the culmination of a great deal of planning and hard work by our people,” said NuHealth’s President/CEO Arthur A. Gianelli. “At its heart, Nassau University Medical Center is a community hospital with a progressive public mission, and we have long been known for having the best-trained, most capable emergency personnel in the region. We now have a facility worthy of their talents…a place where our patients and their families can expect a level of care and an overall experience that is far beyond what they might have come to expect in an Emergency Department. NuHealth’s new ED is truly a giant step forward into the future.”