PLATTSBURGH — CVPH Medical Center will receive $3.5 million in state funding to expand its Emergency Department.
The grant is part of the state's Healthcare Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers (HEAL NY), which has established a series of funding opportunities for improving patient care across the state.
"To qualify for this grant, we had to show that we were harmed by reforms that Medicaid had done to inpatient reimbursement rates," said Joyce Rafferty, vice president of finance for CVPH. "We were also able to show that the Emergency Room is in drastic need for expansion."
The current location for the CVPH Emergency Department was opened in 1997 and was designed to meet the needs of about 34,000 patients yearly. The hospital is now seeing around 50,000 patients in the ER per year.
"In order to handle that many patients in a small space we've had to put patients on stretchers in the hallway until we can get them into the treatment rooms," Rafferty said. "This grant will allow us to increase our treatment space by between seven and nine new treatment areas."
The new treatment rooms will be constructed where the ambulance bays currently sit. The hospital is still working on designs to relocate the ambulance bays.
"Last fall during the H1N1 crunch, we did use the ambulance bays as a temporary treatment area to increase capacity," said Michael Hildebran, director of marketing and public relations for the hospital. "That worked relatively well."
There is no timeline yet for when construction will begin, but the planning phase is expected to start in October. Construction is expected to be completed within two years.
"The ER is our front door to the community," Rafferty said. "We want to improve patient satisfaction in that area, and we believe this grant will go a long way to help us do that. It will help us provide more efficient and quicker service for our patients."
E-mail Jeff Meyers at: jmeyers@pressrepublican.com
