We’ve spent a lot of time and effort working to provide our community with the type of patient care experience we would all want in the Mercy South Emergency Department (ED) – and our community has taken notice. We’re experiencing tremendous growth in the number of emergency patients we serve, with more than 1,000 more patients coming to us for care each month compared to a year ago. Not only are we caring for more patients, we’re caring for far more acutely ill patients through our time critical diagnosis teams. We’re seeing:

• Eighty more stroke patients per month (26% increase)
• Forty more trauma patients per month (13% increase) 
• Four more STEMI (heart attack) patients per month (15% increase). 

We are now the only level 1 STEMI center and only level 1 stroke center in South County – and our EMS partners are taking notice. In May, we received a record number of ambulance visits at 78 per day, and helicopters delivering patients directly to Mercy South is becoming a far more common occurrence. As they bring an increasing number of patients to us, they are seeing the outstanding care we provide, and we anticipate this will lead to continued growth in the number of patients they bring to Mercy South.

Meeting these needs has taken hard work by teams across the entire hospital to enable the ED to more effectively and efficiently serve our patients. As the first touchpoint most patients have at Mercy South, emergency care is a major driver of our reputation so it’s important we keep striving to improve.

Upcoming Expansion
Now is the time to take the next step: expanding and redesigning the entire ED.

In the coming months, we will start work to almost double the size of the emergency department. We will grow the ED from 61 beds to 73 beds. There will be six trauma bays, each twice the size of our current ones, and a separate 13-bed behavioral health area. The layout will change to use the space similarly to how we layout an intensive care unit (ICU) with smaller pods of rooms providing nurses direct line of sight to each patient. In addition, we will add more space to the waiting area giving our patients more room.

The initial phase of the project will significantly expand the footprint of the ED into what is currently the ED parking lot. Once complete, later phases will transform every bit of the current ED into the new design. The exact start date for this $75 million project will not be set until construction permits have been approved. Construction is scheduled to take two and a half years, and when finished in 2027, the ED will be more than 65,000 square feet compared to the current space of less than 39,000 square feet.

Our ED will remain open and serving patients during this project. Please join us in showing patience, understanding and support as caring for patients through construction like this presents additional challenges.