Baptist to Spend $13.9M Upgrading Its ER

By Daniel Connolly

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis plans to spend $13.9 million to improve its emergency department, joining several other Memphis- area hospitals that are investing in new equipment and improved facilities in response to a growing demand for urgent care.

Baptist has asked the state Health Services and Development Agency for permission to move forward on a two-story expansion that would add 23,000 square feet of new space and renovate about 14,000 square feet of existing space. The hospital plans to pay for a new CT imaging device and a new magnetic resonance imaging machine.

Under Tennessee law, the state must approve expansions to health care facilities.

Baptist said in a state filing that it had more than 54,000 visits at its flagship East Memphis hospital in 2007.

The number of visits is creeping upward, and patients are often sicker than they once were because of the aging population, said Gordon Lintz, assistant administrator for Baptist.

If the state approves the project, construction could start in May and be complete 18 months later.

Baptist’s emergency department has overflowed its original space and spread over time into other areas of the hospital, leading to an inefficient layout, said Dr. Donald DeCarlo, the medical director of the emergency department. He said a renovation would bring patients through the department more quickly and that the new machines would make diagnosis easier.

Baptist wouldn’t be the first to renovate its emergency department. Hospitals including Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis on Park Avenue and Methodist South Hospital near Elvis Presley Boulevard have also invested recently in improving their facilities.

Nationwide, there were 115.3 million emergency room visits in 2005, a 19 percent increased compared with 1995, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. One cause is a growing number of elderly people. Crowding and long waits are common.

Under Tennessee law, health care companies can try to block competitors’ proposed expansions. But such fights often center on services that attract patients with commercial insurance that compensates them at high rates.

Emergency care is often a money-loser for hospitals, who are legally obligated to treat every patient who arrives, regardless of their ability to pay, and

Lintz said he doubted Baptist’s plan would be controversial.

- Daniel Connolly: 529-5296

Originally published by Daniel Connolly daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com .

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