Nebraska Medicine is expanding its emergency medicine department

The ER at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE

Nebraska medicine announced plans on Wednesday to begin a $2.2 million expansion of Nebraska Medical Center's current emergency department, starting on January 3rd.

Dr. Michael Wadman, chairman of the emergency medicine department at the
University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE

The expansion is intended to accommodate an anticipated increase in patient volume as Omaha's population ages.

The medical center will add seven private exam rooms, extra workstations, and complete minor upgrades to eight existing critical-care emergency department rooms at the Nebraska Medical Center emergency department. The medical center also plans to add two emergency room doctors and several nurses to its existing staff.

Existing administrative office spaces, a staff lounge, and a conference room in the current facilities will be demolished to make room for the expansion.

Existing patient care areas will not be affected during construction, and the expansion construction project is expected to wrap up by early June.

"The timing is right," said newly appointed University of Nebraska Medical Center's emergency medicine chairman Dr. Michael Wadman, M.D. “The ED expansion will allow us to accommodate an anticipated increase in patient volume over the next several years. Our mission is to provide timely, high quality emergency care for all of our patients, and this project will provide the space we need.”

Dr. Wadson said that, for many Nebraskans, the ER is the front door of the hospital to many patients seeking medical care. "Planning for the future and not waiting until we're overwhelmed with patients is the right thing to do,” he added.

"It not only provides for better patient experience, higher quality of care, it reduces the amount of time that they have to wait in the emergency department which is always at the front of our minds."

The Nebraska Medical Center is a Level-1 trauma center and serves as one of two main hubs for people seeking emergency medical care in the larger Omaha metropolitan area.

When the current emergency department at the Nebraska Medical Center opened in November 2005, it was designed to accommodate 60,000 patients per year. But by the start of 2017, the ED is already expected to surpass that number.

In This last fiscal year, the Emergency department was on track to see over 58,000 people.

Sophisticated statistical models indicate that the emergency department can expect an additional 4,000 to 10,000 ER patient visits per year. The planned expansion will allow staff to accommodate another 10,000 patients annually.

References:

• Omaha World-Herald—Nebraska Medicine to expand med center's emergency department (12/29/16)
• Nebraska Radio Network—Nebraska Medicine in Omaha expanding emergency department (12/28/16)
• WOWT—Emergency health care expanding in the metro (12/28/16)
• KETV—Nebraska Medicine to expand Emergency Department (12/28/16) with video
• KMTV—Busier emergency room prompts NE Med expansion (12/28/16) with video
• Omaha World-Herald—Dr. Michael Wadman will be new chairman of UNMC's emergency medicine department (9/14/16)
• Medicine of Omaha—Dr. Michael Wadman named new chairman of UNMC's emergency medicine department (9/14/16)
• UNMC Newsroom—Dr. Wadman named chair of emergency medicine (9/13/16)