One local hospital is expanding its emergency services to help bring better health care to the Grand Strand community.
McLeod Seacoast plans to break ground on its Emergency Department expansion project in April, according to Dr. John Charles. Charles says McLeod Health closely monitored residential and visitor growth on the North Strand before making a decision to expand the department.
The expansion project, according to officials, is the largest to date for the hospital.
“What we want to do is make sure that experience you have in the Emergency Department is a high-quality experience – either if you’re very, very ill or if you’re having a minor problem you want us to look at,” he said.
The Emergency Department expansion project will increase the hospitals number of exam rooms from 11 to 23, including three state-of-the-art trauma bays.
“The exam rooms will be private, with the latest technology and amenities in emergency room care,” an announcement on the expansion said.
The added area will also allow for a Fast Track section of the department that will allow medical staff to quickly treat minor emergencies and injuries, all to avoid congestion and long patient wait times.
Charles says the expansion will likely mean the growth in Emergency Department personnel working at McLeod Seacoast – including an additional ER physician and support staff.
“When you have twice the number of emergency patients at any given time, we’ll need more X-ray .. .we’ll need more laboratory … we’ll need more nurses,” he said.
Hospital executives also believe the expansion will help McLeod Seacoast move towards becoming a Level III Regional Trauma Center.
“If you establish yourself as a Level III, then Level III traumas are going to start coming your way,” he said. “We need to make sure we can accommodate that not only with space, but with equipment and personnel and with the infrastructure already inside the walls of the hospital to handle that.”
McLeod Seacoast’s Emergency Department expansion project is expected to break ground in April and take 18 months to complete. Charles hopes to have the rooms up-and-running no later than Fall 2016.
Additional enhancements at the hospital include an expansion of McLeod Seacoast’s Day Hospital (outpatient services), a new energy plant, new central sterile unit and new Procurement warehouse.
McLeod Health also plans the addition of a concourse to the hospital, which will change the outside appearance of McLeod Seacoast, in the upcoming years.