"We are asking everyone to take the time to familiarize themselves with the new location of the Emergency Department entrance before they need to use it."
— Robert Gauthier
Vice President of Support Services
Southcoast Health System
| For Immediate Release | Contact: Joyce Faria Brennan |
| October 14, 2004 | 508-961-5270 |
| brennanj@southcoast.org | |
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NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — St. Luke's Hospital's Emergency Department entrance will be temporarily relocated to West Street, at the back of the hospital, beginning Monday, October 25, 2004, at 7 a.m.
The new temporary Emergency Department entrance will be located at the corner of West and Taber streets on the upper parking deck next to the Surgery Center until further notice. The Surgery Center entrance will remain the same.
Parking on the upper deck will be restricted to ambulances, Surgery Center patients and Emergency Department patients. There will be complimentary valet service for patients to help manage parking. Robert Gauthier, Vice President of Support Services for Southcoast Health System, said the temporary relocation of the Emergency Department entrance is an "integral part of the St. Luke's construction project that will allow for the Emergency Department to continue critical operations with the least amount of disruption."
The new entrance will be used until further notice and Gauthier predicted the changes would be in effect through Spring of 2006 when the emergency department entrance will return to Page Street. The completion of the $32 million construction project is scheduled for December of 2006.
"We need to continue operating the hospital's emergency services at full capacity during the St. Luke's construction and renovation project," he said. "For this reason, we have designed a plan that will help alleviate confusion for our patients, staff, physicians, emergency medical service providers, first responders and neighbors. And we need everyone's help in getting the word out."
In addition to creating a "back door" to the current Emergency Department with patrons entering on the Surgery Center parking lot located on the corners of West and Taber Streets, the hospital has devised a multi-tiered communications plan to notify emergency medical services, first responders, physicians, employees, patients and neighbors of these important changes.
"We are asking everyone to take the time to familiarize themselves with the new location of the Emergency Department entrance — before they need to use it," Gauthier said.
Follow the signs
Signs will be posted inside the hospital and around the hospital property directing traffic to the new temporary Emergency Department entrance. The construction zone will be fenced off for safety purposes and to avoid any confusion.
St. Luke's has also arranged to have valet parking for patients who arrive at the Emergency Department entrance to keep traffic flowing and help with parking.
"We will have valet parking during the day and Security personnel will be located at the new entrance 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to assist with traffic and keep the area secure," Gauthier said. "The first few weeks will be critical in accessing traffic flow patterns and addressing any concerns that may be raised."
Additional Changes
The Page Street access to the St. Luke's Retail Pharmacy will also be closed. Retail Pharmacy patrons should park in the main Page Street lot and enter through the hospital's Main Entrance on Page Street and proceed to the Mezzanine Level. Signs posted inside the hospital will help direct the public to the pharmacy and the new Emergency Department reception area.
Details outlining the new Emergency Department entrance, including a map, can be found online at www.southcoast.org/stlukes/. This site is updated frequently with news and information about the progress of the project.
Working with neighbors
Neighbors within a one-third mile radius to the hospital should begin receiving letters and a detailed map this weekend outlining the new Emergency Department changes.
Gauthier said hospital officials met with neighborhood group called Neighbors Eager for Enlightened Development, or NEED, on October 13. The planning, design, civil engineering and landscape firm, Vanasse, Hangen, Brustlin Inc., which is helping address parking and traffic issues, has also met with NEED.
"We continue to be committed to working with all of our neighbors to balance the vital and growing health needs of the entire community with neighbors' concerns over how the hospital impacts their neighborhood," Gauthier said.
St. Luke's has also set up the St. Luke's construction community hotline to better facilitate comments and feedback at 508-961-5033.
The New St. Luke's
Today some 73,000 people each year use the St. Luke's ED, which was designed for only 55,000 visits. That causes overcrowding and significant delays in treatment for minor injuries and puts an incredible burden on the health care staff and the facility.
The New St. Luke's project will increase the Emergency Department to 51 bays from 31, add 32 new medical/surgical beds to the hospital, create two new operating rooms, add a second cardiac catheterization lab and an amphitheatre for medical education. These improvements will ease the delays many patients find in the ED, many of which are due to patients waiting to be admitted to the hospital because there are not enough beds. The $32 million, three-year project will include 50,000 square feet of new construction and 40,000 square feet of renovations all within the hospitals current footprint.
About Southcoast
Southcoast Health System, a not-for-profit charitable organization, is a community based health delivery system with multiple access points, offering an integrated continuum of health services throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and East Bay, Rhode Island. It includes Southcoast Hospitals Group, formed in 1996 from the merger of Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.
Southcoast is one of three community hospitals approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to perform open heart surgery and primary angioplasty beginning in Spring 2002.
Media Contact
Joyce Faria Brennan
Phone: 508-961-5270
Pager: 508-387-9605
Fax: 508-961-5876
brennanj@southcoast.org
