Albany Medical Center officials on Tuesday announced a $25 million emergency room expansion plan.
With 85,000 emergency department visits tallied over the last year, Albany Medical Center says it will increase the size of its adult emergency room by nearly 25 percent.
Dr. Denis Pauzé, chair of the Albany Med Department of Emergency Medicine, says the expansion will add nearly 7,000 square feet.
"We're adding 20 new patient care spaces, bringing our adult total rooms to 74 we have reworked our Emergency Department entrance. We have a new EMS staging area, making sure that we can have rapid turnover for our EMS colleagues and specialists, we've redesigned our intake and our triage areas, making sure that patients with minor emergencies can be separated from those with more complex medical needs," said Pauzé.
Geriatric care spaces, a six bed, advanced resuscitation unit along with expanded mental health spaces will also be added.
Albany Med has been criticized as having some of the longest emergency room wait times in the state. Albany Med CEO Dr. Dennis McKenna said the hospital network has taken steps over the last year to decrease wait times.
Speaking Tuesday, McKenna also says a new logistics center will better coordinate the movement of patients between system hospitals.
“We have four hospitals in our health system. We have Columbia Memorial Health, Albany Medical Center hospital, Saratoga hospital, and Glens Falls hospital, we often like to say, and also we have a children's hospital. The logistics center now recognizes that some of the patients who need to be transferred to a hospital could very appropriately, be cared at, say, Saratoga or Glens Falls if they're coming from the north country. So our logistics center now acts as the central receiving area by phone call for those patients,” said McKenna, who added the expansion is expected to be completed next year, pending state approval.
"Obviously, we can't close the doors and do the renovation, so we have to provide care in place. You heard about the critical role we play. So it'll be done safely, it'll be done smartly. It'll be done in stages, and ultimately, we expect the entire project to be done by the summer of '26," McKenna said.
Though not ruling out the possibility of seeking government grants, McKenna says the Health System will solicit community support for the $25 million project.
