Video: New Emergency Department Promises Better Technology & Care

[jwplatform hepfCjBp]

NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WCBI) — ” Our goal is to have patients once they enter the door, get them to the provider as quickly as possible.”

Emergency care at Baptist Memorial in New Albany is getting a huge makeover. The new 22 bed state of the art department is one of a kind.

“We do have 2 trauma rooms with lots of advanced technology. We have 2 isolation rooms that we can use for patients with tuberculosis and things that we want to keep contained. We have a decontamination room to decontaminate patients if we have an industrial accident or accident on highway 178 or the railroad tracks,” said Heather Reid, Emergency Department Nurse Manager at Baptist.

Hospital leaders say the new facility is long overdue because of the high volume of patient care they’ve seen over the last 3 to 4 years.

“At that time we were seeing around 16,000 patients a year. Now we’re seeing around 25,000 patients and basically we’ve outgrown our space,” said Reid.

Phil Nanney, Executive Director of Union County Development Association says in addition to job opportunities for the town and top notch equipment, the new emergency department provides patients with a comfortable feeling at a time when they need it the most.

“I’ve been a patient, my wife’s been a patient, our children have been patients.” If you’ve experienced a small emergency department on a regular rushed night, you’ll be very happy with the accommodations here and with the anticipated case of flowing through the system in order to get your health care quickly,” said Nanney.

The new department opens at 6am Monday.