A local hospital celebrated the grand opening of its new ER department recently, in a private event.
Rush Oak Park Hospital hosted Anan Abu-Taleb, the mayor of Oak Park, along with state legislators and members of the village board of trustees. The new facility is LEED-certified, and covers 55,000 square feet. The new ER will allow Rush to serve many more patients than its original department, which was designed to handle 15,000 emergencies per year, and dates back to 1969.
According to Bruce Elegant, the CEO and president of the hospital, he started thinking about developing a new ER over two years ago, as he knew there was a need for a larger space.
The hospital itself paid for the new ER department, which has three triage rooms, 22 rooms for conducting exams, and a waiting area, furnished with lounge chairs. State-of-the-art areas have been designed to handle contagious patients, and the rooms have been equipped with dedicated showers in case someone needs to be treated for chemical exposure. Poster printing can be used to create signage for facilities like this.
Elegant added that the facility could add additional exam rooms if necessary. The old ER had only 18 exam rooms, some of which were created by converting hallways and closets to this use. Elegant pointed out that currently, the ER sees about 38,000 visits annually, but the new one has been built to handle 50,000 patients, so there is room for growth.
