Buffalo, N.Y.-based Erie County Medical Center is looking to build a $58 million emergency department to expand treatment care and accommodate an increasing number of ED visits, reports The Buffalo News.
Here are five things to know about the project.
1. While the ED is slated to cost $58 million, ECMC plans to borrow $100 million to fund additional renovations at the medical center such as installing new boilers and generators.
2. Plans for the ED include a 54,000-square-foot facility housing 54 treatment stations, according to the report. Of those stations, four rooms will be dedicated to trauma, two will be behavioral health safe, two will be isolation rooms and four will be medical resuscitation rooms.
3. The current 26,000-sqaure-foot ED has 34 rooms.
4. ECMC officials estimate its ED runs at over-capacity 12 hours per day, according to the report. The medical center saw almost 70,000 ED visits last year, nearly double the number of visits the medical center's ED has seen over the past 20 years. Despite a rise in urgent care centers, narrowing health maintenance organization policies and other efforts to curb ED visits, ECMC still plans on the number of ED visits rising over the next few years, The Buffalo News reports.
5. New York State Department of Health approval is required for the project. If approval is issued, ECMC officials expect construction to begin this summer and reach completion in 2019, according to the report.