| June
29, 2004
MGHS breaks ground on new Emergency Department and Level II Trauma
Center
60,000 square-foot facility will have 22 private rooms and a 24/7
walk-in clinic
Marquette
General Health System broke ground Tuesday morning on a new Emergency
Department and Trauma Center.
Marquette General Health System breaks ground
Tuesday morning on the new Emergency Department/Level II Trauma
Center. Pictured, front row, from left are Marquette
Mayor Jerry Irby; Board of Trustees Vice President Paulette Lindberg; Board
of Trustees President Tim Larson; Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee; Chief Executive
Officer Bill Nemacheck; Emergency Department Nurse Manager Mary Johnson;
Dr. Steve VanderRoest, Medical Director of the ED; and Dr. John Kosinski,
Medical Director of the new Trauma Center. In back, from left, are Board
of Trustees members Stephen Mattson, Secretary Wayne Johnson and Rev. Paul
Weber. The new addition, to be built west of the hospital’s existing
eight-story patient tower, is expected to be complete by late summer 2005.
(MGH photo)
The 60,000-square-foot addition will house a new 20,000 square
feet Emergency Department and Trauma Center, support space and
30,000 square feet for future
expansion of outpatient services. It will be built west of the of the hospital’s
existing eight-story patient tower.
The new addition will feature 22 private Emergency and Trauma treatment rooms,
a 24/7 walk-in clinic and monitored observation beds. Construction will commence
this week, with the entire project expected to be complete by late summer
2005.
A number of city dignitaries, Marquette General administrators and employees
attended the groundbreaking. U.S. Representative Bart Stupak, D-Menominee,
was also in attendance.
The main floor of the new facility will feature a new Emergency Department
(ED)/Trauma Center and expansion of the hospital’s laboratory.
The $11.4 million project is a significant first step in the development
of the Upper Peninsula’s only Level II Trauma Center. MGHS is currently
seeking Level II Trauma Center status, the highest attainable ranking for a
non-university-affiliated emergency center. Only four other medical centers
meet strict Level II Trauma Center certification criteria from the American
College of Surgeons (ACS).
Construction of the new facility, along with operational modifications, will
be key components in achieving Level II Trauma status.
Bill Nemacheck, Chief Executive Officer at MGHS, said the new ED/Trauma Center
will be a welcome addition to the Marquette campus.
“We’re thrilled to be moving forward on this project,” Nemacheck
said. “The new ED/Trauma Center will provide a larger, more convenient
facility for patients and provide faster service with greater privacy.
“One-third of our inpatients come through the emergency department, and
it’s essential to improve and enlarge the facility,” Nemacheck added. “Care
processes and technologies have changed significantly since the current facility
was built, and we’ve seen substantial increases in the numbers of patients
and severity of their injuries and illnesses.”
Important facets of the new ED/Trauma Center include: Four state-of-the-art
cardiac observation rooms; a large covered and heated drop-off area for ambulances;
and a new public entrance with a larger, quieter waiting area.
Emergency Department Medical Director Dr. Steve VanderRoest, a board-certified
emergency physician, said the new facility will put MGHS ED/Trauma services
on par with any in the Midwest.
“The new addition will allow us to separate critical and complicated patients
from walk-in clinic patients, improving efficiency for all patients,” Dr.
VanderRoest said. “The increase in ED patient capacity will ease the transfer
process of unstable trauma and medical patients to MGHS from outlying institutions.
The new state-of-the-art facility will have more private rooms available to our
patients, reflecting our emphasis on patient confidentiality.”
The facility will be designed to meet all Centers for Disease Control Homeland
Security recommendations, and improve the ability to handle situations, such
as the potential for a chemical spill or a mass casualty incident.
Nemacheck said the lower level of the new addition will be used for future
development of outpatient services. The existing ED space, he said, will
tentatively be renovated and converted into a new MRI suite. No timetable,
he said, has
yet been established for that part of the project.
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