New emergency facility
By Helen Altonn
being built at Queen’s
Star-BulletinThe Queen's Medical Center's emergency department, which treated nearly 28,000 patients last year, will slip into hospital history next year.
Construction is under way on a $14 million state-of-the-art emergency treatment facility and parking structure.
The long-awaited project was celebrated yesterday by hospital administrators and staff and public officials.
"It will be better for everyone," said Dr. Andy Schwartz, an emergency physician for 18 years.
The decision just to go to the emergency room is stressful for patients and families, he pointed out. "When they arrive, we want it to be as unstressful as possible."
He said, "The people are great and the medicine is great" in the present ER, "but the physical facility leaves a lot to be desired."
The new emergency department, being built in the Pauahi Building at the Ewa side of the Queen's campus, will be more comfortable and efficient for the staff, patients and families, Schwartz said.
"It will be everything all of us could have hoped."
Art Ushijima, Queen's president and chief executive officer, said the idea of a new emergency room was conceived about 20 years ago, and some staff members began planning it.
Emergency and trauma care have changed dramatically since, he said, providing the foundation for a number of hospital programs, including stroke and heart intervention.
Construction of the new facility began Aug. 10 and is "going well," said David E. Kerr, construction manager. "We're hoping for early summer completion."
Kerr said the only building problems anticipated are those associated with demolishing buildings 30 to 40 years old.
Among those razed will be Maluhia, a concrete building that opened in 1930 as an emergency station on the Punchbowl Street side of Queen's.
The emergency room opened in 1960 in the Iolani Wing, designed for 10,000 to 12,000 patients.
Schwartz said about 19 beds can be accommodated "in a pinch, if carts are pushed out of the way." The new facility will have 31 beds, and 25 will be in private rooms.
An ambulance bay will be constructed at the Maluhia building site, next to the emergency room. Instead of crossing the hospital grounds to get to the ER as they do now, ambulances will go directly to the new ER off Punchbowl.
Families will be able to drive by and drop off patients, then go by an underground tunnel to a 600-car parking garage on the lot between Miller and Punchbowl streets.
Dr. James Pierce, Queen's chief of staff, said the present emergency room is "way overloaded," with needs outstripping space. "There is no place to park, and the waiting facility is terrible."
The new facility will be "a great addition for us and the community," he said. "It is long overdue. We're really looking forward to it."
It will be larger, well laid out with separate areas for certain kinds of cases, have better access and services focused on patient needs, such as laboratory and X-ray facilities, he said.
Patient satisfaction is a prime goal, said Cindy Kamikawa, manager for critical care in emergency services, and Susan Orr, nurse manager in emergency.
Orr said patients complain now about long waits in the emergency department. The new waiting area will be larger and more pleasant, even including an aquarium, she said.
Kamikawa said the new ER will have 2-1/2 times more square footage than the present emergency unit. As many services as possible are being incorporated so patients don't have to go elsewhere for them, she said.
