News

Hospital Plans Emergency Services Department Addition

Athol Memorial Hospital made headlines last month when it announced plans to build a new Emergency Services Department.  The project, the first major expansion in over forty years, includes a new 7,280 square foot addition and renovations to the front entrance of the hospital. 

The new facility will increase treatment capacity to meet the growing demand for services as well as improve patient access and privacy.  Emergency visits to the hospital, almost 11,000 in 2007, are up 18 percent since 2003, and projections indicate 14,000 visits per year by 2010.

The hospital, which came close to closing its doors less than ten years ago, has consistently maintained a positive bottom line since 2000.  Athol Memorial Hospital has continued to upgrade services, technology, and the facility during the past eight years.

One recent example is implementation of a PACS (Picturing Archiving and Communications System) in the Radiology Department.  The fully digital system captures, saves, and transmits diagnostic images electronically, thereby eliminating film processing, storage and retrieval.  Physicians now have immediate access to results and the capability for quick diagnosis and treatment recommendations.  Some other significant improvements include preparation for Primary Stroke Service designation, which was granted in 2006, a new telecommunications system, structural upgrades such as roof replacement and installation of a new heating plant, and many cosmetic enhancements throughout the building.  

 “Now it’s time to really focus on the future,” expressed Steve Penka, FACHE, President and CEO of the Athol Memorial Hospital “and how we can best serve the needs of this community.  We are all acutely aware of the limitations of our present Emergency Department in terms of patient privacy.  The Board of Trustees has discussed numerous ways to address this issue and examined every possible way to reconfigure our present facility and meet spatial requirements.  The only good solution is to take a dramatic step and build what we truly need.”

 The Board, through sub-committee, consulted with various architects before entering into agreement with Margo Jones and Steven Drakulich, of Greenfield.  Jones and Drakulich have submitted drawings, a proposed engineering services schedule, and budget estimate.   Plans to date include an addition to the northwest corner of the existing hospital building for Emergency Services, renovations to the existing front entrance of the hospital with a new, easily accessed elevator, and relocation of some outpatient services.  Representatives from the hospital administration, medical staff, and Emergency Services Department, have already been working with the architects, and will continue throughout the process. 

 The new Emergency Services facility will have ten (10) private treatment areas and ample space dedicated to triage, registration, and waiting rooms.  A distinct entrance for ambulances arrivals will improve patient traffic, both outside and inside the Emergency Department doors.  Plans also include accommodation for additional and future medical technologies.

 The space now occupied by the Emergency Department will be transformed into outpatient waiting and registration, with an adjacent laboratory draw station.  The other half of the space will house Health Information Management Systems, commonly referred to as Medical Records.  Patients will then be able to conveniently and directly access these outpatient services.    

 Groundbreaking is scheduled for early fall, followed by eight months of construction and a tentative completion date in April 2009.  The architects and the Board of Trustees will meet this April 28^th for continuing project and budget approval and full specification documents will be presented in June 2008.  Total project cost, including site preparation, fees, new construction, all renovations, and furnishings, is estimated at approximately eight million, eight hundred thousand dollars ($8,800,000).

 Project funding will consist of hospital financing, federal and state sources, and community drives.   Private donations have already been allocated toward the endeavor.  Hospital Auxiliary President Pauline Briggs has earmarked a one hundred thousand dollar ($100,000) gift, received last year from Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Kelley, for the new Emergency Services Department.  Thirty eight thousand dollars ($38,000) given to the hospital by the Drew family is also reserved for use on the project.  The hospital is preparing a major fundraising campaign to offset borrowed dollars.                                 

 Patient satisfaction levels at the hospital are high.  Throughout the year, ninety-eight percent (98%) of patients polled reported being “satisfied” to “very satisfied” regarding their experience at Athol Memorial Hospital.  In January 2007, patients reporting high satisfaction levels reached one hundred percent (100%).  Ninety percent (90%) of the surveys returned stated “very satisfied”, and ten percent (10%) were “satisfied” with the care they received at Athol Memorial Hospital.

 “The dissatisfied comments that we do see,” stressed Penka, “are centered around waiting in the Emergency Department, despite the fact we have one of the lowest wait times of any western Massachusetts hospital.”  A February 24, 2008 article in the Springfield Republican cites statistics from the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium.  Average length of stay for patients in Athol Memorial Hospital Emergency Department is 1.9 hours, measured by the moment a patient arrives through waiting, treatment and discharge to home or admission. Only one other hospital out of the nine surveyed had a shorter turnaround.  “We expect this will even improve once we occupy the new addition and complete our relocations.   I anticipate the community will be as excited about this project as we are and will show their support, as they have so generously done in the past.”