Construction is progressing smoothly at Harrison’s ER expansion. Completion is scheduled for early next year.

A year after Bremerton’s Harrison Hospital turned a new page in its history by launching a multimillion-dollar, state-of-the art emergency room expansion project last October, the rhythm of construction has kept pace with that of the ER itself. As about 30,000 to 40,000 patients streamed through the ER over the past 12 months, construction of the new facility turned one milestone after another.

By the end of January, emergency room staff will have lots more elbow room while patients will have a lot more privacy in the new facility that is almost triple the size.

“Often time our volume exceeds our space,” said Emergency Services Director Louann Bean. “We’re going to a model where all the treatment space are private rooms.”

Those rooms will all have identical equipment and any type of need could be treated in each room. Currently, certain ER rooms are equipped for specific cases, and patients are often shuffled around to make the right equipment available.

“We toured a number of emergency rooms around the country and looked at what worked and what didn’t. We feel patients and their families need the privacy when they receive the care,” she said.

The rooms will be designed to accommodate medical staff on one side and family on the other without crowding each other. A total of 32 “treatment spaces” will be available instead of the current 17. The trauma bay that treats the most extreme patients will be semi-private, with two beds.

Bean said Harrison will be able to more efficiently respond to disasters, especially as the current situation emphasizes bio-terror. Three-stage decontamination zones will be designed to treat patients as well as have isolation rooms. Negative air flow in the entire facility will help stop contagious disease from spreading. The current facility only has negative air flow in each room.

A separate area of the ER will be designated for mentally ill patients, increasing their privacy or potential disruptions to the other patients.

The current facility will be renovated after the move, which will take about 12 weeks, and be used as an administrative building including the staff lounge, records and equipment storage. Additional covered parking, separate ambulance and walk-in entrances and new equipment are also part of the $13 million project.
  “We will accomplish our move in one night, in the middle of the night so there are no disruptions,” Bean said. Staff from a variety of departments will be on hand to make sure everything goes smoothly.