Two Heritage Valley hospitals get grants
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Three decades ago, hospital emergency rooms dealt primarily with trauma from automobile accidents, heart attacks, strokes, broken bones and other catastrophic problems.
The two hospitals of the Heritage Valley Health System -- Heritage Valley Beaver, formerly The Medical Center, Beaver, and Heritage Valley Sewickley, formerly Sewickley Valley Hospital, -- averaged about 30,000 emergency room cases a year, combined.
Nowadays, according to Health System chief operating officer Rose Nolan, emergency rooms end up treating a wide variety of aches, pains and minor illnesses besides the trauma cases.
The two hospitals' emergency rooms average 90,000 visits a year.
That is the driving fact behind expansion projects going on in the emergency departments of both hospitals.
Both projects got a boost in recent weeks through two separate $1 million state grants, one for each project.
Work at the Sewickley hospital is being done internally because the building is landlocked and cannot expand, said Dan Murphy, the health system's vice president of institutional advancement. The first phase is already done, with 11 private examination rooms and a new nurses station and waiting room. Eventually, there will be a separate area and entrance for behavioral health emergencies.
It is expected to be finished in February. Mr. Murphy said work there is slower because it has to be done in conjunction with hospital functions instead of in new space.
The grant for the work came from the state Department of Public Welfare's Acute Care Hospital program. The rest of the $6.2 million Sewickley project and $20 million Beaver project is being covered through capital campaigns and from operating funds, according to Mr. Murphy.
The Beaver hospital grant is from the State Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program. The hospital's emergency department is being expanded with a three-story addition that will also create a new main entrance, a gastro-intestinal lab on the second floor and shell space for future expansion on the third floor. Mr. Murphy said two more floors could be added if and when they are needed.
A new heart/vascular center will occupy the area now occupied by the emergency department. The move is expected to be made in the fall.
Ms. Nolan said both hospitals will be better positioned to deal with the realities of emergency department care.
"People have learned that going to the emergency room is the easiest way to get fast, quality access to physicians," she said. "You know when you show up that by the time you leave you're going to have an answer."
She said the fact that people are living longer with chronic illnesses contributes to the high use of emergency care, as does the fact that both parents work in many families, making it harder to get quick access to regular care at a doctor's office.
Ms. Nolan noted, though, that the trend adds to the overall cost of health care because emergency care is more expensive than care at a doctor's office.
She sees doctors' offices offering longer hours and notices a rise in "convenient-care centers," which can handle lesser health issues that arise suddenly or in off hours.
First Published March 12, 2009 5:47 am
