The long-delayed opening of the county hospital’s new emergency room is here.
Johnson Memorial Hospital’s brand new emergency department will open Monday morning inside a new building on the hospital’s main campus in Franklin. It is the product of a years-long, $47 million expansion to add a new emergency department and outpatient services center in place of an older part of the hospital, demolished in 2018 on the east side of the medical campus.
Construction began more than two years ago, and the completed building houses a 17,400-square-foot emergency department, a new ambulance drive and bay, and a 33,000-square-foot outpatient services center, which offers radiology and laboratory services and began operations in June.
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Monday won’t be the first time the building is operational though. The new emergency department has served as the hospital’s COVID-19 unit since March to care for the hospital’s growing number of patients with the disease and isolate them from the rest of the hospital.
“We’re just so grateful because when you think about it, having the opportunity to turn that space into a COVID space back in March and April, we helped so many more patients,” said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO of Johnson Memorial Health.
Now, the COVID-19 unit has since moved to the second floor intensive care unit in the old hospital building, and the ICU has moved to the third floor of the medical tower.
Johnson Memorial hosted a small ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony Tuesday inside the new building to celebrate its official opening. Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, the Johnson Memorial Health Board of Trustees and hospital staff were in attendance.
“This is a long time coming,” Barnett said, addressing the small crowd. “I want to thank the board for having the vision to update the hospital facility and health care right along with the plans to update the City of Franklin.”
Dunkle, who took on the role of president and CEO last year, was grateful to finally have the emergency department ready to open, even if it did not go as originally planned, he said.
“It feels fantastic, but at the same point, obviously, I wish things could have been better. We had planned for a huge open house with the community. Is this ideal? No. But what’s ideal in the COVID-age?” Dunkle said.
The watered down celebration comes after months of delays. The original opening date was scheduled in January, but that date was pushed back because preparing for the move took longer than expected, he said.
Then, the opening date was set for April. But plans were delayed again in March at the onset of the pandemic, and the building was converted to a COVID-19 unit.
Several steps were taken in the last week to prepare the new ER after the COVID unit moved out. A priority was disinfecting the unit, and cleaning out the ventilation, Dunkle said. Other minor preparations had to be made, including painting, fixing flooring and setting up the technology systems to run the emergency room, he said.
“When we pivoted to the COVID unit, there were things that just weren’t done yet,” Dunkle said.
The new building gives the emergency department significantly more space, increasing the number of rooms to 26 from 15. Additionally, emergency services will have more advancements and state-of-the-art technology compared to the hospital’s current ER, including bullet-proof glass, isolation rooms and decontamination areas, as well as a separate entrance for patients brought to the hospital by ambulance.
As for the relocated COVID-19 unit, it has six isolation rooms ready for patients who are admitted to the hospital with the disease, a significant decrease in space. The previous unit in the new building had room for up to 26 patients. However, the hospital never admitted more than seven positive patients at a time, even in April when the pandemic was at its peak in Indiana, Dunkle said.
Even with cases increasing across the state again, hospital officials remain confident in their ability to care for more COVID-19 patients, he said.
“It was stressful finding the right timing of when do we move it and when do we close down the COVID unit,” Dunkle said. “As people see, COVID cases are still growing in Indiana as a whole. But luckily, we haven’t seen a large increase in COVID cases in the hospital.”
Johnson Memorial had one COVID-19 positive patient in its relocated unit on Tuesday.
“We still feel we have the adequate space to take care of these patients,” Dunkle said.
The new ER will begin operations at about 4 a.m. Monday, with staggered staffing to make sure the first day runs smoothly. One doctor will be housed in the old emergency department, taking care of patients admitted before 4 a.m., and another will be in the new emergency department after 4 a.m., Dunkle said.
People who need emergency care before 4 a.m. Monday should continue to go to the old emergency room, located at the front of the hospital facing Jefferson Street. After 4 a.m. Monday, patients who need emergency care should go to the new emergency department, located on the east end of the hospital’s campus.
Clear signage with directions will be posted throughout the medical campus to direct patients to the proper emergency room, Dunkle said.
