BRISTOL – Bristol Regional Medical Center unveiled a new, $13 million emergency department Thursday, June 26, that features a visionary architectural design geared toward delivering the best emergency care experience for patients.
With more than 21,000 square feet of new space and 10,000 square feet of renovated space, the new emergency department dovetails with a community need. The emergency department and Level II trauma center at Bristol Regional treats almost 70,000 patients each year, despite the fact it was originally designed to treat 36,000 patients a year. The number of treatment rooms – all of them now private and more spacious – increases from 31 to 44.
The hospital will begin seeing patients in the new emergency department the morning of Monday, June 30.
“Every square foot of this new emergency department is planned with the patient experience in mind,” said Bart Hove, president of Bristol Regional. “There is more space, of course, with bigger, better-equipped rooms, which is important. But this project has always been about more than just square footage. Great forethought by a number of people – leaders from our hospital and Wellmont Health System, our board members and our physicians – went into ensuring we would build an ED that emphasizes ease of care.
“We already had the best physicians and clinicians in place at Bristol Regional. Now we have a state-of-the-art ED that will meet the community’s needs for years to come.”
Bristol Regional turned to one of the country’s leading firms in designing emergency departments – FreemanWhite Inc. – to help make the hospital’s first major expansion project in 14 years a model for other facilities to follow. As medical director of Bristol Regional’s ED, Dr. Mark Woodard knows something about dissecting the myriad processes of excellent emergency care – and he said FreemanWhite’s contributions to the project were crucial.
“FreemanWhite writes the textbook for emergency physicians on ED design,” Dr. Woodard said. “They specialize in ED design. It’s almost like having a Jack Nicklaus golf course in Bristol.”
The floor layout is akin to a race track design that enhances sight lines between physicians and clinicians and their patients.
“The unique floor design will decrease walking and put the staff closer to the patient,” Hove said. “It has a more open, brighter feeling and maximizes the ease of interaction between the physicians, clinicians and the patient.”
Other features of this $13 million investment in the community include:
- Addition of medical equipment so each room has the latest life-saving technology for resuscitative measures
- Expansion of a fast track area so patients will can enjoy even quicker access to a provider
- A new helipad, already in use, so Bristol Regional can provide rapid, life-saving care in conjunction with its emergency services partners, such as WellmontOne Air Transport and Med-Flight II air ambulance service
Dr. Woodard said the new emergency department is a textbook example of how a meeting of minds produced a goal, identified the best ways to meet that goal and stayed on track to meet it precisely.
“You can build new rooms and just put beds in, but we’re going beyond that,” Dr. Woodard said. “The partnership between our hospital administration and our health system, of how they asked for physician input and involved physicians in the planning process, is a great example of how everyone comes together to do the best job possible. This is about being a physician-led organization. It’s really exciting.”
About Wellmont Health System
Wellmont Health System, headquartered in Kingsport, Tenn., is the premier provider of healthcare services in Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentucky. The not-for-profit, integrated healthcare delivery system is a founding member of the national Safest Hospital Alliance and Tennessee’s only 2007 Excellence Award Winner.