Cleveland Clinic Akron’s new ER will open July 31

Cleveland Clinic AKRON — AkronGeneral’s long-awaited new Emergency Department is getting the finishing touches before it officially opens later this month.

The $49 million project — nearly three years in themaking— involved building anew structure from the ground up directly across from the existing emergency room on Akron General’s main downtown Akron campus.

The new ER will take patients at 7 a.m. on July 31. All existing patientswho are in the old ER at that time will stay there and be treated by a full emergency department staff until they are released or admitted to the hospital, officials said. Nopatients will be transferred to the new ER.

The new 67,000-squarefoot facility is three times as large as the old department.

The new ER is “part of the commitment Cleveland Clinic hasmade to the Akron community,” said Dr. Brian Harte, Akron General president. The existing emergency room is dated and was renovated as much as possible, but it was time to offer anew, expanded facility with state-of-the art equipment, he said.

The new ER is part of the pledge from the Cleveland Clinic in 2015 when it first became a minority owner and eventually owner of Akron General.

The new ER will have its own 40-spot parking lot for patients. Currently, patients or their families must park in the main parking deck. There also is a driveway in front of the facility for dropoffs and valet parking. Aseparate drivewayand entryway is provided in the heated bay for ambulances. The new area can fit six ambulances, compared to four now, with room for more in the driveway.

The new facility includes 60 care areas for patients — up from 37 — as well as two trauma bays, a dedicated private exam room for sexual assault victims, a new CT scan machine and x-ray machines, and larger treatment areas for minor and major injuries, said Dr. Steve Brooks, Akron General’s interim chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine.

The new ER is designed to see 65,000 to 70,000 patients a year.

“Our goal is turn these patients around quicker and more efficiently,” Brooks said.

Patients will first be seen in a “care initiation room” to see a provider. The design of the newER is set up so once a patient is seen, they never go back out to the original waiting room, instead flowing through to other rooms, such as an internal waiting area or the next examroom, Brooks said.

The new unit also has a separate behavioral health unit with five dedicated rooms monitored and designed for patients who may be a threat to themselves. Garage doors can be lowered to hide any equipment and there are no areas where patients could strangle themselves. For instance, special handles ondoors and cabinets do not have loops and a sink in the hallway of the unit does not have a traditional faucet head.

The trauma rooms and resuscitation rooms in the newERcan function as operating rooms, if needed, and the rooms are all connected to allow a team to move from patient to patient in a mass-casualty situation, Harte said.

New to the ER is a dedicated exam room with its own bathroom and shower for Akron General’s PATH (ProvidingAccess toHealing) program, inwhich specially trained registered nurses conduct medical examinations with sexual assault and domestic violence victims. Theprogramdoes not have a dedicated room in the existing ER, said Brooks.

Harte said the hospital hasn’t determined how the existing emergency department space will be used after the move.