New Hanover Regional Medical Center plans to renovate and expand its main campus emergency department on 17th Street to accommodate an anticipated increase in patients over the next nine years, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday.
 
The project will renovate the emergency department’s existing 33,000 square feet of space and add 12,600 square feet, said Erin Balzotti, New Hanover Regional’s media relations coordinator.
 
The city of Wilmington’s Technical Review Committee is expected to review site plans for the expansion and renovations at its meeting Thursday, according to the panel's agenda. The TRC session is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. in a conference room on the fourth floor at 305 Chestnut St. The hospital's plans were submitted to the city by Norris & Tunstall Consulting Engineers with BBH Design listed as the designer.
 
“We currently care for about 87,000 patients a year at the 17th Street ED [emergency department], and we project that number to reach close to 100,000 by 2024,” Balzotti said in an email. “Our current ED consists of 48 exam rooms, trauma bays, behavioral health patient areas and triage rooms, but more room is needed to handle the projected patient volumes efficiently. The new plan allows us to increase to 73 total rooms and provides other flexible locations to more efficiently treat patients in the ED.”
 
The hospital does not need state approval for the project, she said, and it hopes to start construction on the emergency department changes in the spring, with completion expected in early 2017.
 
"Using Lean methodology, a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, technicians, paramedics and other staff provided input on many elements of the layout and design of the ED. Staff gave input on room size, seating arrangements, storage and other elements of the design to ensure maximum efficiency and focus on the family-centered care that is standard throughout NHRMC," Balzotti said.
 
In the past several years, work at the hospital’s 17th street campus has included an overhaul of the main patient tower in 2009, along with the addition of the Betty H. Cameron Women's and Children's Hospital and a new surgical pavilion.

More recently, construction began in spring of last year on NHRMC’s new stand-alone emergency department in northern New Hanover County, a 30,000-square-foot building expected to have 10 treatment rooms and one critical care room and be finished by May of this year, according to a news release on the hospital’s website.

“This new emergency department will allow residents in the northern part of our county more convenient access to emergency care when they need it,” said Christy Spivey, administrator of emergency and trauma services at NHRMC, in a hospital news release in April 2014 about the northern New Hanover County emergency department.

The estimated project cost for the stand-alone facility is about $15.1 million “and will be funded from NHRMC’s capital budget. It will be built on approximately 26 acres of land on Market Street, alongside NHRMC Atlantic SurgiCenter,” the release said. The Market Street emergency building is also by BBH Design and under construction by Brasfield & Corrie, according to the release.