St. Elizabeth Hospital announces the opening of new Emergency Department and Surgery Procedure Area
10 / 25 / 2011
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Maria Nelson, Media Relations
Affinity Health System
(920) 720-1752
(920) 554-0686 (pager)
APPLETON, Wis. - St. Elizabeth Hospital announces the opening of its newly built Emergency Department and Surgery Procedure Area, complete with eight centrally-located "flex rooms" that can be used as either Emergency Department or Surgery Procedure Area rooms. Since the departments have opposite peak hours of operation, these rooms can easily be used without any scheduling issues.
Built inside already existing areas of St. Elizabeth Hospital, the renovated building features:
- 48 private major trauma, emergency, flex and surgery and procedure area rooms (SPA)
- Four-bay infusion suite that provides comfortable and private settings to receive infusion therapies that require professional monitoring, such as antibiotic, antiviral and antifungal agents, immunoglobulin therapy and inotropic medications for cardiac patients
- Two over-sized hyperbaric oxygen chambers that will be used to administer oxygen treatments that reduce swelling and increase oxygen content in the body’s cells, helping damaged tissues heal faster
Each room is constructed for maximum patient comfort and hygiene with soft daylight bulbs designed to reduce stress, multiple light levels for patient relaxation and radiant heat panels over each bed to keep patients warm. All walls are painted with nature-inspired murals provided by a local vender and made of sound-absorbing materials that keep room noise level at 35 decibels (the sound of a bedroom at night), which is 40 decibels lower than a typical emergency department. The sliding frosted glass doors offer maximum privacy without harboring bacteria-like curtain dividers. Infection risk was also reduced with the eliminating most horizontal surfaces in the rooms.
There is now a greater ease of access for patients arriving at the facility, with the entrance located right on Oneida Street. Immediate admittance to rooms means there is little to no waiting time for patients. Information technology boards in every room provide h ospital staff with constant updates of each patient’s location and health status.
"We’re thrilled to be able to offer the community this cutting edge universal care platform," said Travis Andersen, president of St. Elizabeth Hospital. "This premier facility will allow us to further improve our already high level of personalized care by efficiently utilizing our hospital space and staff to the best of our ability."
The building is also sustainable, made up of reclaimed, recycled and natural materials that diverted more than 500 tons of construction debris from landfills. It was built to reduce energy consumption by 25 percent. More than 700 patient interviews and surveys and 100 employee interviews and surveys were consulted when designing the facility.
For a virtual tour of the new Emergency Department, click here.
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For the Editor:
Affinity Health System, a faith-based regional health care network, is the Fox Valley’s second-largest employer, according to the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry. For the fourth consecutive year, Affinity has been named one of the nation’s top 64 health systems based on clinical performance according to Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care. For ten consecutive years, Affinity Health System has been named to the SDI (formerly Verispan) Integrated Health Network Top 100, an annual assessment of the 100 most highly integrated health care networks in the nation. Both St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton and Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh rank among the top 1 percent of hospitals nationwide in terms of quality and efficiency, as determined by the 2007 Premier | CareScience Select practice National Quality Award. Members of Affinity include Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Health Foundation, Oshkosh; St. Elizabeth Hospital and the St. Elizabeth Hospital Foundation, Appleton; Affinity Medical Group, a regional network of 25 family practice and specialty clinics – 22 of which are recognized as NCQA Level III medical homes, the highest level of recognition – in 14 communities; Calumet Medical Center, Chilton; and Affinity Occupational Health.