Munster hospital unveils new $32 million emergency room

BY SUSAN ERLER, Times of Northwest Indiana
serler@nwitimes.com

MUNSTER | Invited guests got a sneak peek Thursday of The Community Hospital's expanded emergency department.

At more than double the size of the original 30-year-old ER, the newly built department offers plenty of room for patients and staff, officials said.

"It transitions our emergency compartment into an emergency department," hospital Chief Executive Officer Don Fesko said, eliciting laughs from hospital employees and bystanders at the event.

The $32 million department opens to patients Feb. 16, and a public open house is planned for Sunday, featuring Olympic gold medalist David Neville, of Merrillville, and players from the Chicago Cubs and Bears.

The completed project caps years of planning and a delay while Community Hospital joined with St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart and St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago as a single hospital system, said John Gorski, Community Healthcare System chief operating officer.

"Over the years, we've grown to be the No. 1 provider of care," Gorski said.

The new emergency department is housed on the ground floor of a 56,000-square-foot, two-story pavilion with separate entrances for emergency vehicles and walk-in patients.

Spacious nurses stations inside the facility are centered between 30 glass-walled and curtained treatment rooms meant to provide privacy and comfort, hospital spokeswoman Mylinda Cane said.

The department also offers a 64-slice scanner for heart examinations, a private obstetrics exam room equipped with baby monitoring equipment, a suite of two treatment rooms designed to handle trauma patients and a decontamination room for patients exposed to hazardous materials.

Also unveiled on Thursday were a suite of new private rooms, new entryway and other improvements to the hospital's west pavilion, completed as part of a separate $10 million project.