UMass Memorial Medical Center debuts $129 million ER expansion
It was the only time you’d want to be there, UMass staff quipped as they welcomed the general public to a Jan. 7 open house to get their first look at the new $129 million Lakeside Wing. UMass Memorial Medical Center’s 264,000-square-foot emergency care facility is expected to open as a fully operational facility on February 7.
Lakeside will be the only Level 1 (highest level) Trauma Center in Central Massachusetts. It has triple the space of the old ER and increases its capacity from 2,000 annual patient visits to 75,000-plus visits.Large operating rooms feature ceiling-mounted lights, screens and other equipment, a design that’s now standard in many new ORs across the country. The facility also boasts world-class operating rooms, intensive care units, radiology space and expanded mental health facilities. The Life-Flight area — capable of handling up to three helicopters— is the single largest ER Life-Flight center in the state.
Additional features include:
• Reconfiguration of patient care areas, entrances, parking and walkways
• Operating suites of 700 square feet, an increase over the current average of 400 square feet or less
• New diagnostic capabilities, including an on-site 64-slice CT scanner
• On-site laboratory capabilities
• Separation of adult and pediatric emergency care facilities
• An expanded and secure emergency mental health service unit, with separate adult and pediatric areas
• Wireless ER communication
• TV monitoring via a computer hub
The Duddie Massad Emergency and Trauma Center, the centerpiece of the project, is named for David "Duddie" Massad Sr. Chair of Worcester-based Commerce Bank and Trust Co., Massad is the largest single donor, giving $12.5 million. About $40 million of the total $129 million cost of the facility comes from donors such as Massad, the Remillard Family Foundation and Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas. Worcester-based Hanover Insurance Group Inc. donated $1 million. UMass remains about $8 million short of its donor goal.
The new space is designed with patients, family-members and hospital staff in mind. It includes 66 treatment rooms and 10 new operating rooms. The wing also includes 16 ICU rooms equipped with individualized X-Ray machines, so patients don’t have to be moved for those services.
Information areas and private consultation rooms for patients and families are part of the design. And streamlined computerized check-in and triage units are expected to reduce patient waiting times.
Newly added wireless communication and tele-medicine technologies can also reduce mortality rates by 25 percent, according to UMass.
Architects for the Lakeside Wing were Boston’s Canon Design. Turner Construction Co. of New York built the addition. For equipment, UMass made deliberate efforts to purchase locally. The hospital purchased $1.5 million of telecommunication equipment from Charlton-based imaging fiber optics firm Karl Storz Endovision Inc.
Christina P. O’Neill assisted in the reporting of this story.
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