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There’s a big change coming to Hillcrest Henryetta Hospital Monday morning.
After nearly a year of walking around to enter through a side door, visitors and patients will be using the front entrance again.hospital front
Hospital administrator Dee Renshaw said the change will affect everyone, from those wanting to visit patients or have out-patient treatment as well as emergency room visits.
“When an emergency room patient comes in will be separated, emergency to left, outpatients and visitors to the right,” he said. Ambulance and helicopter patients will still be coming in through the existing emergency room door.
Visitors to the hospital Monday will see the difference with a large “Emergency” sign above the front entrance.
The expansion adds more square footage to the existing emergency room opening up five treatment rooms instead of the smaller, three treatment rooms. “This will be large enough to acomodate a full-blown code. Now they are so tiny, you have to go outside to change your mind.”
hospital emergencyThat will present a patient suffering from a heart attack from being next to a person who has the flu.
“This will also put all of our patient registration people together instead of being scattered at three or four locations in the hospital,” he added.
Renshaw said the hospital sees around 800 patients each month in the emergency room.
The waiting room and entry expansion completion means workers will now be concentrating on giving more room for laboratory staff.
That is the fourth and final phase of the project and is expected to be completed in the fall.
Work on the 40-year-old hospital has not been cheap. The Henryetta Hospital Authority is spending around $3.2 million on the expansion with Hillcrest adding between $700,000 and $800,000 for landscaping, furniture and equipment.
“We know that old habits die hard and people will be still coming to the ER entrance but now we will be hospital deedirecting them to the front.”
The hospital administrator said the addition of Air Evac has been a plus for the hospital and the area.
The helicopter service based at the medical complex has provided air service to 370 patients this past year.
That addition, as well as the hospital staff working with patients and visitors has ranked Hillcrest Hospital as number one in patient satisfaction out of around 35 hospitals in the Ardent healthcare organization.