Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is opening the first phase of an expansion to its Emergency Department, a project that began in November 2017.
The first phase of the expansion includes four additional care initiation areas, four exam bays and six treatment rooms, as well as a new main entrance, registration desk and waiting area. It will open to the public at 7 a.m. on Thursday, May 23. In the coming weeks, a new ambulance bay with direct access to trauma bays will be finished.
“The expanded space in the Emergency Department will make it easier for our providers to give high-level care to patients in immediate need,” said Dr. Susan Promes, chair of emergency medicine. “Patients will get the same expertise they expect from Hershey Medical Center providers with an improved operational flow.”
In the care model implemented in the Emergency Department in July 2018, patients are greeted at the registration desk by a nurse, then taken to a care initiation area and assessed by a physician as soon as possible. After a physician determines the level of care needed, patients are either moved into a room or to the waiting area. In the waiting area, nurses and emergency department technicians continuously check vital signs and monitor patients.
Phase two of the expansion project, expected to be complete next summer, will add four more exam bays, two more treatment rooms, a dedicated sexual assault exam area, an expanded decontamination and infectious disease isolation area, and other support spaces.
Hershey Medical Center is the only medical facility in Pennsylvania to be accredited as a Level 1 trauma center for both children and adults, with more than 70,000 annual emergency visits.