Emerald Hospital’s $10 million Emergency Department upgrade is officially open, improving the flow of patients through the hospital and giving better access to care closer to home.
Approximately 50 Emerald patients are seen in the unit every day.
The upgrade includes:
- Two resuscitation bays
- Four outpatient consultation rooms
- Telehealth space
- Isolation treatment bay
- Consultation rooms
- Medical records area
- New allied health gym
- Plaster room
- External decontamination shower
The upgraded ED has four extra clinical consultation spaces, which provides more privacy to patients and their families.
Extra space in the staff station means doctors and nurses can have their own workspaces, with a clear view of all resuscitation bays and acute spaces to keep patients safe.
This project forms part of the Federal Government’s $1.2 billion Community Health and Hospitals Program designed to deliver services centred around cancer treatment, rural health and hospital infrastructure, drug and alcohol treatment, preventative primary and chronic disease management and mental health.
CQ Health Chief Executive Ngaire Buchanan said the new ED provided better privacy for patients to have conversations with doctors and nurses.
“This is especially important when it comes to treating patients in mental health crisis, and these new spaces allow for a safer treatment environment,” she said.
“For the first time Emerald Hospital has two fully equipped dedicated resuscitation bays for treatment of seriously ill or injured patients, and one of those has state-of-the-art telehealth equipment which brings tertiary hospital specialists into the room virtually to provide expert advice to our local doctors and nurses.”