Revived; Lovelace’s Renovated ER Will Open on Tuesday
By Copyright 2007 Albuquerque Journal BY WINTHROP QUIGLEY Journal Staff Writer
Another state-of-the-art addition to Albuquerque’s medical building boom comes online Tuesday when Lovelace Health System begins admitting patients to its renovated Downtown medical center emergency department.
That will shortly be followed by the opening of two completely transformed floors in the 10-story hospital to cardiac patients June 30.
The new emergency department will accommodate up to 67,000 patients a year when operating at full capacity. Lovelace Medical Center Downtown and the Gibson SE emergency room combined could handle 40,000 visits before the renovation.
Lovelace Medical Center CEO Clay Holderman told the Journal during a tour this week that he expects that the larger, more efficient emergency department will cut the average patient stay from five hours to three hours.
It has been a busy several months not only for Lovelace but for its two major Albuquerque competitors. Lovelace announced this month that a Pennsylvania developer bought its Gibson hospital and will create a new medical mall on the campus. Lovelace’s soon-to-be- independent medical group will have offices there.
Lovelace has also invested $14 million on its Women’s Hospital and $22 million on its West Mesa Hospital.
Meanwhile, the University of New Mexico is awaiting state approval to open its new $223.8 million hospital expansion this spring. Presbyterian Healthcare Services has invested $43 million on improvements, including a new emergency room, and has announced plans to build a $150 million hospital in Rio Rancho.
Lovelace gutted the Downtown hospital’s street-level first floor of its administrative offices, gift shop, lobby and other facilities and built a 32-bed emergency department, several new nurses stations, a new ambulance entrance and a lobby for walkin patients.
"The biggest delay in any emergency department is from waiting for results," Holderman said, so Lovelace has installed a laboratory and medical imaging equipment in the department. Physicians can review digital X-rays on computer screens throughout the area.
New elevators can be instantly summoned to move an emergency patient to surgery. All patient rooms in the department have cardiac monitors, there is a dedicated orthopedic area, and one room has negative air pressure to isolate contagious patients.
A dedicated fast-track unit will treat less seriously ill or injured patients. This frees up beds for more severe cases, and it keeps the fast-track patients from continually being booted to the back of the line when severe cases arrive, Holderman said.
New computer systems will allow providers to track patients’ treatment and location throughout their stay.
By the numbers
New: 32 beds, nurse stations, lobby, ambulance entrance, computer systems
Patients: Department can handle 67,000 patients a year
Wait: Should reduce average stay from five hours to three hours
Diagnostics: lab and imaging facilities in the ER
Fast-track: One unit treats less seriously ill to free beds for the seriously ill, preventing other patients from getting moved to back of the line
(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.