Madera Hospital to Open Expanded ER and ICU in Early December
Early next month, the nonprofit Madera Community Hospital will open a new emergency room five times larger than the previous one, increasing the number of beds from 10 to 17, the Fresno Bee reports. The facility will also expand the number of beds in the intensive care unit from six to 10. The 15,000-square-foot expansion will cost $5.5 million, and construction has been in progress for almost three years, according to hospital CEO Robert Kelley, who called the change "by far the biggest expansion we've done." Funding for the expansion came from hospital revenue. Donations to the hospital foundation will offset part of the cost of new equipment, including $230,000 for 10 new heart monitors. Charlene McCormick, the emergency department's nursing director, said the old ER used to get so crowded that she had to put patients "in the staff lounge." But now, she said, "We have more space; we have more patient and staff privacy; there's more working room. You can just see the night-and-day difference" (Davis, Fresno Bee, 11/21).
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