We see over 55,000 outpatients a year. Many of those start their process by coming through our Emergency Room. When I first started here, our ER had 5 beds. With the first Hospital Expansion, we increased that to 7, and now we have 11 beds, plus 2 orthopedic beds. Before I left in April, our ER was often full of patients on each bed, but then also we had patients waiting outside until there was a bed for them to lay on. The expansion of our ER has helped this, for the most part, we don't have anyone waiting. We were also able to move some of our smaller ER procedures to a different room in our clinic area, so enable only those who need the ER as an ER to come there.
We also were able to have 2 Trauma beds, with their own overhead light. This is a huge blessing when we have to suture a patient. Previously, we would have to find a small lamp and figure out how to plug it in without tripping everyone and have to have someone angle the light just so, so you could have light where you were trying to suture. Now, we just adjust the overhead light right where we need it. Something pretty simple, but it will make a huge difference to our patient care. We also now have more room around the beds for nurses and doctors to have space to work on the patients. This expansion is definitely going to help us care for patients even better, and I am thankful for the extra space.
