East Side group tours Hurley’s expanded facilities

Members of the East Side Business Association were given a work-in-process tour of Hurley Medical Center's expanded emergency department Oct. 6 by Emergency Director John Stewart.

The new emergency department takes over the entire main floor of the east wing, the long corridor off the parking garage, then extends another 25,000 square feet toward Fifth Avenue for a total of 50,000 square feet. The main lobby is also located there.

"In the past, there was only one emergency entrance to the center. Patients came by ambulance and by private vehicles to it," Stewart explained. "Today patients coming in private cars enter through the new emergency entrance and ambulances use the original entrance."

"This separation of emergency patients helps us meet our goal of every patient seeing a physician within 30 minutes," Stewart said.

Stewart explained that the emergency department sees about 88,000 patients annually.

The expansion was funded by a $35 million bond sale. With this funding, the center was able to build a new emergency trauma center that doubles the size of the current facility. Hurley is the region's only level one trauma center.

The new 9,000 square-foot lobby is open and greatly expanded with a vehicle patient drop-off lane in front of the new main entrance.

New patient and pediatric rooms are 50 percent larger than existing rooms. All private rooms have decreased noise levels and integration of new technologies.

Parking has also changed at Hurley. Only the staff uses the old parking structure.

"It's exceeded its lifetime," Stewart said. "All visitors park in surface lots. Valet parking is also available."

Golf cart-like buses driven by volunteers pick up patients and deliver them to the new front entrance if the patients cannot walk the distance from the parking lot to the hospital entrance.

An additional emergency pediatric wing, designed like a circular racetrack, puts support staff in the center with 16 patient rooms surrounding each of the stations — dubbed pods. There will be a ratio of one nurse per four pediatric patients. A new emergency medical record system puts computers everywhere putting information just a touch away.

The expansion project is one of the largest recent construction projects in Genesee County. It has generated hundreds of local jobs.