Nurses and Medical staff provide around the clock care in the emergency department. Although when there aren’t enough beds to go around, it causes problems. Essentia Health is expanding their emergency department with their medical center in Virginia to provide faster care for patients.

Providing emergency medical care with limited space is incredibly challenging. When there’s fewer available rooms in the ER it can lead to longer wait times for patients seeking medical care.

One of the big improvements for Essentia Health expanding their emergency department in Virginia is five new exam rooms to treat patients. Melissa Devries has been a nurse practitioner at Essentia Health‘s Virginia ER for eight years. She says they need to be adaptable when treating a high number of patients with limited space.

“We get ambulance traffic from several different EMS companies. The ability to have more room for our patients is what we’ve been asking for. It’s what our patients have been asking for,” Devries said. “This is not a want, this is a necessity. This is a need for our community. We want all of our patients in a bed. And we want them to have privacy and to have quality care. But the reality is that sometimes people just cannot wait.”

The expansion project is still in the beginning phases. Although ER staff will continue providing round-the-clock care throughout renovations. Sam Stone, the hospital administrator at Essentia Health’s Virginia medical center says they want to get these changes implemented as quickly as possible.

“Our kickoff with the architects is going to happen on Monday. That’s really going to set the wheels in motion to get this project going, most likely in the fall, in the October time range. We expect about a 12-month construction period,” Stone said. “This will increase the speed of the care team getting to the patients, but we don’t expect to grow our services here. It’s improving the care that we’re delivering to the community. Our mission obviously at Essential Health is to make a healthy difference in people’s lives. And this is exactly what that’s about.”

The overall cost of adding five more exam rooms is estimated at $13 million. Those funds are coming from the Minnesota legislature, the IRRRB, and the Essentia Health regional foundation in Virginia.