An empty waiting room.

That's the goal of the staff of the emergency department at St. Clair Hospital, where a $13.5 million renovation and expansion project was dedicated Dec. 17.

The project will increase the square footage of the emergency department from 13,000 to 31,000 and take the number of available treatment rooms from 20 to 46, said David Kish, executive director of emergency services.

Among the treatment rooms will be 31 for acute adult care, six for pediatric care, six "fast track" rooms for patients with minor illnesses and injuries and three behavioral and mental health rooms.

Though rooms have designated uses, all are equipped to handle any type of treatment, with a cardiac monitor in every room and a portable pediatric crash kit and equipment case that can be taken to any room.

Currently there are 32 treatment rooms available in the new addition to the department. Once the renovation of the older section is complete in February, all of the rooms will be available.

The increase in the number of treatment rooms and a revamping of department functions is expected to drastically reduce the amount of time that patients will wait for treatment, Mr. Kish said.

Hospital officials said St. Clair has the busiest emergency room in southwestern Pennsylvania and has been known in the past for its long waits.

But the goal with the new system will be to have patients registered within three minutes of walking into the door, into a bed shortly after that and seen by a doctor within 30-45 minutes. The hope is that no one will have to wait very long in a waiting room anymore, said Christopher DeLuca, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at St. Clair.

Mr. Kish said wait times are already down at the hospital, where last Friday afternoon, 28 beds were filled and no one was sitting in the waiting room.

In the past, the limited number of beds caused the long waits for treatment. Oftentimes, Dr. DeLuca said, doctors wouldn't be able to treat the patients until test results were available, but couldn't start to diagnose new patients because there were no beds available.

With more than twice as many rooms in the new emergency department, physicians will be able to start diagnosis and treatment on more patients, he said.

In addition, Dr. DeLuca said, he has hired three additional full-time physicians who will start in the emergency department this summer. They will augment the current staff of 13 full-time and eight part-time doctors who work there.

A patient's medical records, medications and test results are put into an electronic file that can be accessed by the medical staff involved in the treatment. Similar computers are located at the nurses and doctors stations.

The computer system also includes an electronic bed board that allows nurses to see where the open beds are in the department.

Nurses use a bar code scanning device to make sure they are giving the proper medication in the proper dosages to the correct patient, and all emergency department staff wear electronic badges around their necks that allows them to page one another or to call for help.

Of the $13.5 million cost for the renovation, $1.5 million came from Rossin Family Foundation, $500,000 came from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, and $4,487,000 came from the federal Omnibus Appropriations Bill.

In addition, the new waiting room will include Austin's Playroom, a child-friendly waiting area for pediatric patients, financed through a gift from the Mario Lemieux Foundation and named after Lemieux's son, Austin.