St. Elizabeth Hospital Addition and Renovation

Creating a No-Wait Emergency Department

In planning a relocated Emergency Department on the 17-acre St. Elizabeth Hospital campus, HGA, St. Elizabeth Hospital, and the construction manager initiated a Lean workshop to reduce operational redundancy. The process revealed several services that maintained similar patient expectations that could be co-located, including Observation, Infusion, and Prep/Recovery. The hospital recognized that co-location would help meet their project goals, including furthering the delivery of Personalized Care, creating a no-wait Emergency Department, and keeping the facility fully operational during construction.

The team evaluated opportunities associated with co-location, revealing advantages of both patient experience and department productivity. HGA then developed a design to accommodate both patient types. This allowed the number of major medical rooms to decrease from 23 to 17, and Prep/Recovery rooms to decrease from 28 to 16, with 10 rooms identified as “flex” rooms for either department.