The addition of several community hospitals to the Burlington, Mass.-based Lahey Hospital and Medical Center network caused overcrowding in its emergency department. However, the opening of a new $80 million expansion Jan. 25 will eliminate that issue, according to the Boston Business Journal.
"The level of acuity has risen dramatically as we've become more of a tertiary care center and Level II trauma center," Mac Creighton, chair of the emergency department at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, told the Boston Business Journal. "It became a need over time to provide a space capable of seeing ultimately 50,000-55,000 visits. It's what we think we'll be able to accommodate as we grow."
The hospital's previous ED was 35 years old and was designed to accommodate 17,000 patients per year, though according to the most recent available data, the Lahey ED was seeing up to 40,000 patients per year.
The new ED is 41,000 square feet, compared to the former 12,500-square-foot facility. The number of ED treatment rooms has expanded from 22 to 28 and the number of trauma bays has grown from two to four. The new space also has eight observation rooms, three behavioral health rooms, two diagnostic radiology rooms and two new CT scanners, according to the report. The new ED will also house a pharmacy and a "body view room" for families to have a private area to see a loved one who passes away in the ER.