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Hospital sees need to accommodate growing community
ROXANNE BROWN Staff Writer

South Lake Hospital has seen many a facelift and antic ipates even more changes to accommodate the future needs of a growing community. "All of our previously planned expansions have moved forward more rapidly based on the growth," said John Moore, administrator of business and campus develop ment."And we will continue to adjust our plans as needed to respond accordingly."

According to Sheri Olson, South Lake Hospital's commu nity relations manager, the Clermont facility completed a project that brought in 24 additional patient beds in the summer of 2005. Eight were intensive care beds and 16 were medical/surgical beds. South Lake also celebrated the opening of its newly expanded emergency room March 24.The expansion com pletes phase one of a year-long project that started in August 2005 with a budget of $7 mil lion. The emergency wing has more than doubled in size, increasing from 12 treatment rooms to 30.

"When we first opened the hospital and emergency room in 2000, we saw 19,000 patients that year," Longacre told community members in attendance at the grand open ing. "In 2005, we saw 34,000 patients and expect probably 40,000 in 2006."

The new department fea tures a dedicated X-ray unit with digital capabilities that allows doctors to see the pic tures immediately, without using film.

There are also negative air flow/isolation rooms for treating highly contaminated patients. The rooms are locat ed in the corridor before the main wing, so those patients do not make contact with oth ers and spread infection. The air in the isolation rooms is filtered out instead of being re-circulated through the main ducts,and the filtra tion system is equipped with digital alarm systems that will notify staff if they are not working properly.

Each ER treatment room is equipped with a television for added comfort,along with car diac monitoring equipment and staff computers for added efficiency.

"Comments from patients who have experienced the new ER expansion have been very positive," said Olson. "They like the new design and hav ing the televisions in each room has added to their com fort and their family's com fort."

Longacre said the architec tural design used inside provides natural lighting and col ors that staff believes will make the department a brighter and more pleasant place to be for the staff and patients.

ERnurse Amy Rechtor said the circular work flow design is also helpful because it enhances the staff's ability to see patients and each other. The ER also has a techni cian with equipment that can monitor the vital signs of every patient at a central sta tion.

Outside, a new ambulance canopy and special entrance features five bays, up from three, and allows for quicker, straight-shot parking instead of ambulances having to back up to the entrance. The new wing is also closer to the helicopter landing pad. Phase two, which includes renovation of the old emer gency department, will be completed in July. "The emergency department expansion will improve the way patients receive care, with reduced wait times, increased privacy and more comfort,"said Olson. "Reno- vation in areas of the exist- ing emergency department began on March 27, right after we began accepting patients in the newly con- structed section and we are still on schedule for comple- tion in July 2006."

According to Olson, those renovations include a larger waiting room,with a waiting area just for pediatric patients, triage, registration and a dedicated fast-track area for less urgent cases. In addition, since the hos- pital expects to have 600 to 700 babies delivered this year in the Centre for Women's Health, a second caesarean-section suite is planned.

Olson said when they first built the Centre for Women's Health, they left the third floor an empty shell for future expansion needs. She said because of the number of babies being delivered at South Lake Hospital, the Centre for Women's Health is already beginning the design phase for building out the third floor,which will be dedicated to postpartum patients.

The second floor will be for labor and delivery patients. Olson said the hospital has a group that studies a variety of data,including population estimates, demographics, and the types of services uti- lized by certain age and sex groups.

Moore said they also review new medical-related facilities and discuss both positive and negative aspects to ensure their future expan- sions and service enhance- ments will be the best avail- able. According to Moore, they learn a tremendous amount from the process. "We are very active with the county and cities in our district when it comes to reviewing growth and antici- pating needs," said Olson. "Our board, along with our administrative team,contin- ually study the potential impacts regarding the provi- sion of health care in our community."