Methuen, MA – Holy Family Hospital today celebrated the completion of their new modern, state-of-the-art Emergency Center with a special Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. The new 24,000-square-foot Emergency Center, nearly doubling the hospital’s emergency center capacity, will offer improved efficiency, comfort and privacy for patients and families from the greater Merrimack Valley and southern New Hampshire. The facility includes:
· 32 Private Treatment Rooms each equipped with a computer for the clinical team, a personal TV and individual climate controls.
· Double-Bay Trauma Room where even before a critically injured patient arrives at the hospital, paramedics are communicating with the hospital’s team so they can provide treatment immediately upon a patient’s arrival, which can save lives.
· Double Cardiac Bay where the hospital’s team can assemble in advance of a patient’s arrival and prepare to provide the appropriate treatment when minutes matter most.
· Rapid Medical Evaluation where individuals with non-life-threatening injuries can be evaluated and treated in a timely manner.
· Dedicated Diagnostic Equipment with a 64-Slice CT Scanner and Digital Radiographic Imaging capability offered right in the Center.
· EMS Lounge where the hospital’s care partners can continue their work between emergency calls in a comfortable, private environment.
The new Emergency Center is designed to serve up to 54,000 people annually.
As remarked by Lester P. Schindel, President of Holy Family Hospital, and Ralph de la Torre, Chief Executive Officer of Steward Health Care System LLC, the new Emergency Center project was delivered on time and on budget. The construction team collaborated from the outset through completion of construction to closely monitor both budget and schedule to ensure the hospital’s expectations were met. This collaboration included working closely with hospital facilities staff to ensure existing hospital systems were never comprised. Joe Reilly, Principal and Project Executive of RFWalsh collaborative partners recalls the weekend shutdown of the heating system to allow for connection of new to existing when a patient was brought in for emergency surgery minutes before system shutdown. This type of event required the construction team to stand down for several hours. However the pre-planning, flexibility and creativity of the trades and hospital facility staff allowed the work to be completed within the planned time frame and without interruption to the hospital.
Reilly commented that ground breaking is a special event for the construction trades as well as the Owner and design team. However, when a project is completed and ready for occupancy, and in the case of healthcare, when a new state-of-the art emergency center is ready to begin seeing patients, there is tremendous personal satisfaction knowing that everyone’s hard work and efforts is benefiting those that are truly in need.