A recently completed $11 million Franciscan St. Margaret Health-Dyer renovation project greatly enhances services to meet the needs of the growing surrounding area.
Anthony Wilko, DO, Emergency Department medical director, said improvements to his unit, among the most significant in the project, will enable it “to take care of people better.”
“It is amazing what we can do with a little more space. This lays out the department in a better way for nurses and physicians to better see patients and to get around more efficiently – to move patients through that are in need of short-term emergency services and get them back out into the community,” he said, while attending a May 27 blessing and rededication program that celebrated completion of the work.
“For those who need to be admitted, we can get them in in a more timely and efficient manner,” he added.
Emergency Department renovations include a 3,500-square-foot addition, seven large examination rooms, three advanced trauma bays, expanded ambulance bays, a bio-hazard decontamination area, a behavioral health consultation suite, an isolation room for infectious patients, a high-tech nurses’ station that provides a direct view of patient rooms, advanced patient monitoring systems and high-efficiency LED lighting throughout the department.
The project began in 2013, after years of discussion and planning that culminated in funds being approved so the work could begin, said then-hospital president Tom Gryzbek, who now serves as Franciscan Alliance senior vice president of post-acute services and compliance.
“The goal is to meet the community’s service needs and we’re doing that. We believe in our staff’s ability and this gives them the space they need to effectively use that ability,” Gryzbek said during the blessing program, which was highlighted by the attendance of the Most Rev. Donald Hying, new bishop of the Gary Diocese, who praised the project and the hospital for its efforts to serve the area.
“This beautiful, re-created space will serve so many people in need, who are among the thousands you have helped for so many years,” he said.
Patient needs also are being better met by the other areas of the project, which include a new, 760-square-foot surgery suite that houses a da Vinci surgical robot; expansion of the sterile processing and distribution area and integration technology that allows for quicker and easier configuration and reconfiguration between surgery cases.
The renovation also resulted in optimized laboratory space designed to improve work flow.
“For patients, this all means they will be receiving top-notch, highest-quality services,” Gryzbek said.