Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital’s expanded emergency department opens to patients Tuesday, marking a major milestone in the hospital’s $500 million Crystal Spring Tower project.
How to reach the new emergency department
Starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, the public can use the new emergency department entrance, entering at the light off South Jefferson Street and dropping patients off at the traffic circle in front of the new tower. Parking is available in Carilion’s nearby garages, including the new garage at the corner of McClanahan and Jefferson streets.
Built adjacent to the existing emergency department, the expansion adds three trauma bays for a total of five, making Carilion’s ED one of the largest in Virginia. One trauma bay is dedicated exclusively to pediatric patients. The new area also includes a pediatric-specific waiting room, triage space and patient rooms.
While general emergency departments treat both adults and children, having a dedicated pediatric emergency department can offer a more ideal setting for delivering age-appropriate care, said Dan Freeman, senior director of trauma programs for Carilion Clinic.
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Carilion Roanoke Memorial is the only Level I trauma center in the region and is also designated as a Level I pediatric trauma center, meaning it meets the highest standards in the industry for both adult and pediatric trauma care.
Freeman joined the trauma team as a registered nurse 15 years ago. The new trauma bays, he said, are larger and more efficiently designed than others he’s worked in before, with equipment staged for fast access and optimal workflow.
When a trauma patient arrives, there are about 10 to 15 health care workers rushing to stabilize the patient. The goal is to get the patient out of the trauma bay and onto the next stage of treatment within 20 minutes, Freeman said.
Over the course of designing the expanded emergency department, Carilion staff ran through virtual reality simulations. As the build-out progressed, they transitioned to drills using mock patients, offering feedback that helped refine the space’s design.
“It’s a marathon,” Freeman said of the project. “After being involved in 2019 you’re finally at the finish line, certainly you’re tired to some extent, but super excited for the project to be done. Welcoming staff to the space and showing them what we’re going to call home for the foreseeable future is just very exciting.”
The new construction includes a second helipad with an elevator that takes patients directly to the new trauma bays. The addition will expand patient access and reduce time to care, Freeman said.
New staff were brought on to support the expansion, said Wrenn Brendel, vice president of emergency medicine at Carilion. With the additional resources, wait times in the ED are expected to decrease, but that will depend on multiple factors, Brendel said.
Patients currently wait an average of 282 minutes at Roanoke Memorial’s ED, according to data on Medicare.gov. That’s more than 90 minutes longer than the national average of 191 minutes, and well above Virginia’s average of 169 minutes.
The existing ED has 76 beds. Once the rest of the Crystal Spring Tower opens this summer, the hospital will offer roughly 125 emergency care beds. The tower will also house cardiovascular care units, additional operating rooms and intensive care beds.
“We realize that sometimes getting access into the emergency department is time consuming and problematic. We want to minimize any of those frustrations and the nervousness that may take place,” Brendel said.
