Every Day

January - April 2008 Issue

Emergency Department and Trauma Center Renovated

Enhancing patient-centered care was at the core of recent improvements to the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Emergency Department and Trauma Center. After 10 months of construction that began in January, the newly renovated Emergency Department features many enhancements for patients, families and staff.

“We’ve added 13 exam rooms for a total of 38 rooms,” said Patricia Bellittiere, patient care director of the Emergency Department. “The rooms are now grouped within team stations or ‘pods’ for patient care. Each pod is a distinct patient care area with a dedicated care team and resources. This helps to reduce time for providing care as well as noise levels in the department.”

Bellittiere explained that all exam rooms are now “universal” rooms, meaning they are all equipped to bring services to the patient, rather than needing to send the patient elsewhere in the hospital. For example, each room has ultrasound capability and cardiac monitoring equipment. The rooms also offer more privacy for patients.

“We also enlarged and expanded the trauma area, bringing the total to four rooms, and can now place two patients in each room in the event of an incident with mass casualties,” Bellittiere said.

Other Emergency Department enhancements include:

Three triage rooms (up from two rooms), where nurses evaluate patients and determine the urgency of care required. Patients can now go directly into the Emergency Department from triage.
A remodeled patient waiting area, allowing more room for patients and families.
The installation of a tube that extends from the Emergency Department to the laboratory, allowing staff to directly send blood and tissue samples to the lab for faster analysis.
The addition of a 64-slice volume computed tomography (VCT) scanner right in the department to advance the care of more critical patients. The VCT is able to scan the entire body in less than 10 seconds, giving surgeons more immediate information for determining treatment. The scanner is located next to the trauma area and is staffed 24 hours a day.

“Overall, these improvements allow our emergency and trauma teams to provide more patient-centered care,” Bellittiere said. “Additional renovations are being planned for the future.”

Source: Every Day

Date: Jan - April 2008 Issue