Lehigh Valley Health Network Monday cut the ribbon providing access to a larger and more advanced Emergency Department in Pennsylvania at Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township.

The project includes an expanded adult emergency department, new observation unit and trauma facilities.

The next phase of construction currently underway includes an expanded Children’s ER.

“Everything you need during an emergency is right here,” says David Burmeister, LVHN’s Chair of Emergency and Hospital Medicine.

“This plan has multiple patient-centered additions and efficiencies built into it, including major diagnostic testing, laboratory and trauma enhancements. Everything for providing acute care for our patients is available within this facility.”

Burmeister says the patient experience was a major consideration in developing the new ER. Dedicating an observation unit adjacent to the new emergency department for those that need additional care before discharge allows for more comprehensive, connected care. The ER and observation spaces include all private rooms with the latest technological advances.

The new ER adds 130,000-square-feet of space to the hospital’s current ER, bringing the total size to almost 160,000 square feet.

About 90,000 adult and pediatric patients receive care in the LVH–Cedar Crest ER annually.

The $111 million investment will bring the number of care spaces to more than 200. It includes over 120 adult beds available for emergency care (there were 47 beds) and 27 beds in the Children’s ER, up from the existing 12 beds when that portion is completed.

The adult and Children’s ERs have their own entrances and waiting areas. The expanded facility also will feature three trauma bays with the ability to flex to include a fourth, a dedicated MRI and CT scan, a dedicated full-service laboratory, critical care space, cardiac testing, physical therapy and behavioral health services. There are large waiting areas, ample parking with valet services, a café and more amenities for patients and families.

For patients who need additional care but do not require an inpatient hospital stay, the expansion includes a 35-bed observation unit adjacent to the ER. Keeping these patients in the new observation unit will create efficiencies and eliminate confusion by helping patients understand they’re not being admitted to the hospital. The observation unit is staffed by clinicians from the hospital unit where observation patients currently receive care.

Burmeister says as 2020 has shown our community, our country and our world, it’s impossible to predict the exact number of patients who will need care at any given time.

“What we do know is that this facility makes us even more prepared for the unpredictable and that we will always provide care to people who are experiencing the most critical symptoms first.”

Burmeister says even though the coronavirus began after construction of the new ER was well underway, special considerations were included due to COVID-19 and will benefit the community and health care workers.

He said these include enhanced air circulation so that it’s being circulated out of the building more regularly, along with the addition of multiple negative pressure airflow rooms. The increased space in the waiting room allows for greater social distancing and pods were created within the ER.

Each pod is made up of 12 rooms. The pods allow for dividing groups of rooms to help prevent the spread of viruses like the coronavirus.

Access to the new ER also has been improved. New traffic patterns will have ambulances enter the hospital campus off Fish Hatchery Road instead of the patient entrance off Cedar Crest Blvd. In addition, the LVHN–MedEvac helipad is now elevated above the new ambulance entrance with immediate access to the ER and Level 1 Trauma Center.