Saint Francis completes ER with opening of second phase

Saint Francis Medical Center will welcome patients into the second phase of its new $12 million emergency and trauma center today.

The expansion, designed with staff input, triples the size of the Gene E. Huckstep Emergency and Trauma Center with nearly 30,000 square feet and 32 treatment rooms.

"We look at the ER as the front door to our hospital," said Steven Bjelich, Saint Francis Medical Center president and CEO.

The expansion is due to anticipated increases in demand for emergency and trauma services as baby boomers age and health care reform gives more people access to care.

"Many of these individuals may not have a primary care doctor, so their first choice for treatment will be to come to the emergency room," Bjelich said.

Saint Francis expects an 18 percent increase in ER patients this year, said Marilyn Curtis, vice president of professional services at Saint Francis. More than half of the hospital's admissions come from the ER, she said.

"It was really in response to the need in the region we serve that we needed to do this expansion," Curtis said.

In April, the first phase of the new emergency center opened with 17 rooms, a new 64-slice CT scanner and new X-ray equipment.

With the second and final phase now complete, the center is designed into three "pods," each with a nurses' station in the center of a circle of treatment rooms. Pods 2 and 3 can be closed off for efficiency, depending on the number of patients.

"All the rooms are universal. You don't have any rooms that are specialized for any one presentation. We have disease-specific carts we take to the patients depending on their need," said Marcia Abernathy, director of emergency services, who has been a nurse in the ER at Saint Francis since 1976.

The carts help with specialties like cuts requiring stitches, ear, nose and throat problems, or obstetrics issues. They are all stored under the nurses' station counters to keep the hallways clear, Abernathy said.

Each treatment room also has a private bathroom, a big benefit for patients, she said.

Each pod also has a separate waiting area for families, allowing them to stay closer to their loved ones. That also helps staff communicate the patient's status more quickly to the family.

The new center uses electronic medical records, but paper charts are kept in storage in the event of a disaster, Abernathy said.

Saint Francis is the only Level III trauma center between St. Louis and Memphis, Tenn. The certification is based on factors related to staff qualifications and available services, including having trauma surgeons on call at all times.

Most of the construction work was done with the hospital's in-house building crew, which allowed ER staff to have input in the process from design to completion.

Doctors and nurses attended conferences, conducted site visits, researched and drew from their own experiences to customize the features of the ER, Curtis said.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

211 Saint Francis Drive, Cape Girardeau, MO