The Care Connection at Wellstar Kinston ED Hospital

When the emergency department was built at Wellstar Kinston Hospital, in Marietta, Ja. In the 1970s, the quaternary care center was expected to serve approximately 60,000 visits per year. Says Mary Chatman, executive vice president of Wellstar Health System and president of Wilstar Kinston And Wellstar Wendy Hill Hospitals (Marietta).

In response, ED was forced to innovate 84 beds to address the growing demand, says Chatman, for example adding aisle beds to increase capacity and bringing in a standard treatment unit for temporary use during the last flu season, which then became a long-term care space. . Despite these challenges, ED, which serves as a Level 2 trauma center as well as a comprehensive stroke and heart facility, has had high patient satisfaction scores, says Chapman. “It was a true will and proof of how to take what you have and work with it.”

However, 10 years ago, hospital leaders began looking for a better solution, planning a new ED center with 166 beds (133 global beds and 36 transitional beds) designed to support up to 200,000 visits annually (with room for an additional 36 beds for future growth). ) —- made it one of the busiest electronic companies in Georgia and the second largest in the country upon its opening in July 2020.

Setting goals and solutions

Located in a residential community, initial plans sought to locate the new ED on the existing hospital campus, but the idea garnered opposition from neighbors due to the variant ED’s proximity to nearby homes. So the hospital purchased a triangular plot of land across the street to house a new two-story section. This solution provided space to improve efficiency and care services through the modern emergency department, but presented another challenge: connecting the new emergency department to the main hospital.

The solution was a two-story link built across the two-way road separating the two elbows, with one level designated for transporting patients admitted to the hospital and a second for visitors and family members to move between the two spaces without having to exit. “We wanted to make sure that access was fairly straightforward for the patient coming from the emergency room to surgery, CATH labs and other interventional settings,” says Matthew Manning, ESa Director who has served as the design director on the project, with this is (Nashville, Fig.) W. Huddy HealthCare Solutions (Fort Mill, SC) is collaborating on the project. “Much of the planning relied strictly on where those current services are located in the current hospital where we can make contact.”

Another project goal was to locate additional services within the new emergency space to improve care as well as support operations. “We really wanted to make the emergency department almost in itself a hospital,” says Chatman. For example, the imaging suite with CT, MRI, ultrasound and X-ray services provides access to diagnostic services without the need to transport patients to the main hospital. “The more we can make it a heavy-duty diagnostic center, the easier it is to make decisions about the next step for patients,” says Dr. Vic Reddy, Chief Medical Officer at Wellstar Kinston, Wellstar and Wendy Hill Hospitals.

To accommodate the natural slope of the site, the project team built a two-story ED over a 75,203 sq ft parking garage. The first floor of the 263,000-square-foot building houses a 12-bed shock room and 16 separate children’s beds. Each trauma room has been planned to accommodate in-room imaging while three are directly connected to a CT machine for immediate access. An isolation room located between two adult and child triage areas on the first floor is used to quickly transport the person who poses the risk of infection. To achieve maximum flexibility, the room utilizes airborne isolation technology and anti-ligament properties so that it can also function as a de-escalation room for behavioral health patients, when needed.

The second floor includes a behavioral health unit with 12 beds with separate rooms for eight rooms for adults and four rooms for children. The units include special patient rooms equipped with anti-bandage features such as safety devices and accessories, a day room, shower facilities, and a safe reception area to allow patients in a state of excitement to stop escalating before entering the unit. The adjacent six-bed ED pod on the second floor has also been modeled on behavioral health rooms to allow for future flexibility. “Ultimately we decided that for the number of visits they were expecting, it would be better for the behavioral health unit to be on the second floor,” says Manning. “It’s more isolated, so it will be difficult for patients to escape, and we can give them some access to daylight and other features that you might not be able to do if it’s on the main floor of ED.”

Community connections

To help simplify the traffic, the hospital has three entrances, including separate entrances for adult and pediatric patients and a dedicated space for trauma and ambulances, with three ambulance cabins for different levels of intensity in addition to parking for up to 17 ambulances. “It’s close to our high-risk area, so these patients can get direct access to that area from the EMS,” says Marian Hatfield, vice president and director of nursing for patient care services at Kinston Hospital. “It wasn’t easy to do with one entry in the past.” There is also direct access to the Shock Care Area from the rooftop heliport via an elevator.

As for the interiors, Chatman says the project team tried to relate to the aesthetics of the main hospital, but in an approach that was appropriate for the different patient groups served by the emergency department. For example, the patient capsules in the adult ED section have the shape of a tree, with corresponding colors and graphics for each, while the pediatric ED has a water / bubble theme. “All of the signs are turned on from the theme and the colors are a little brighter in the kids’ room,” says Manning.

Moreover, the project team worked with local and county government officials to make sure the architecture was connected to the community. For example, sidewalks have been placed around the new ED to provide access to campus green space. The project team also tried to reduce the number of trees cut down during construction to keep the site as fertile as possible. Finally, the Mosul Bridge is equipped with the city “M” emblem. “We see it as a bridge to the Marietta community and a bridge to connect our services,” says Chatman. “It stands out in the community.”

Ann Denardo is Executive Editor at Healthcare design. She can be reached at [email protected].

For more information on design trends in emergency departments, see the article,Critical balance,” at Healthcare designMarch issue.

Project details:

Project Name: Wellstar Kennestone Hospital Emergency Department

Project completion date: July 2020

Owner: Wellstar Health System

Total construction area: 184,093 sq ft of new construction; 597 sq ft renovation; 75,203 sq ft parking garage

Total construction cost: Not available

Cost / square meter. Foot: N / A

Architecture: ESa (Earl Swensson Associates)

Interior design: ESa (Earl Swensson Associates)

General Contractor: Brasfield and Goree