Emergency Department Renovation Complete

Swedish Hospital has completed its Yelda Family Emergency Department renovation to further enhance service to the community by improving the operational efficiency, flexibility and capacity of the department. The newly completed patient and staff areas are now open for use.

Improvements to Our Emergency Room

Improvements to the Emergency Department include modernizing approximately 16,755 square feet of existing facilities, and increasing capacity from 50,000 to 70,000 people served annually in the Emergency Department which was already one of the busiest in the city.

“With the completion of the final phase, we are better positioned to meet the needs of our patients, our Emergency Department physicians and clinical staff,” said Anthony Guaccio, president and CEO of Swedish Hospital. “The renovation enables our ED to be more efficient in connecting patients to the services they need; provides increased capacity to see more patients; and will help decrease wait times, all of which will have a positive impact on our organization and the community.”

The facility now features 27 acute care rooms, four behavioral health rooms, eight quick care rooms, three triage rooms, an EKG room, a lactation room, three internal waiting rooms, four hall suites with oxygen, a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner room with shower and conference area, a Lutheran Social Services of Illinois Project Impact office and a specialized behavioral health unit.

“Our new state-of-the-art facility will greatly improve the patient experience by enhancing our ability to provide care efficiently,” said Dr. Bruce McNulty, CMO and emergency physician. “The new layout, additional rooms and a specialized behavioral health unit will further assist in decreasing wait times for visitors and enhance service to patients, while positioning our ED as the best in Chicago.”

“This forward-looking design enables us to adapt to changing needs, such as technology enhancements and continuing patient volume increases in the future; plus, we will see increasing cost efficiency while providing a safe and healing care environment,” added Saliba Kokaly, vice president of operations at Swedish Hospital.

The hospital worked with Berglund Construction and Anderson Mikos Architects for the renovation which began in late 2016 with various sections of the department closed during construction.

“We want to thank our patients and staff for their patience during this process and we look forward to operating at an increased capacity which should decrease wait times and improve patient experience,” said Dr. Keri Robertson, Emergency Department chairman and director.

The emergency department renovation was supported with $2.2 million in TIF funding and the support of the City of Chicago and Alderman Patrick O’Connor and Alderman Ameya Pawar. The funding and support enables Swedish Hospital to increase its capacity to serve an additional 20,000 patients annually.