Saint Peter’s Opens New and Improved Emergency Room

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Saint Peter’s Hospital in New Brunswick in early September finished an expansive renovation of its emergency center. The new 20,000-square-foot emergency room was completed on time and on budget, while minimizing disruption to patient care.

The 478-bed teaching hospital, which has been based in New Brunswick since 1907, sees 30,000 inpatients and more than 200,000 outpatients annually. The new emergency room, however, is large enough to accommodate 70,000 to 75,000 patients a year in hopes of creating shorter waiting times and giving patients a greater degree of privacy. The renovation has also nearly doubled the size of the treatment areas, and new private rooms have helped improve the patient experience.

“We wanted to create a place that enabled us to practice the highest-quality emergency medicine we all envision,” said Derek Schaible, MD, interim chair of emergency medicine. “Second, we wanted to create an emergency department where we would want to be treated if we needed care.”

In a statement, East New Brunswick-based Gillespie Group, the project’s flooring contractor, said that because of the immense amount of patients, the new floor needed to be able to hold the weight of the beds as well as provide a flat and smooth surface for the beds and equipment.

Although the hospital was undergoing a major renovation, the emergency room remained open with full services to patients. The floor installations, as well as the other renovations were completed without any interruptions to patient care. All of the contractors and team worked together to devise a plan to coordinate their work to avoid clashing with the plumbers, carpenters and electricians, according to Gillespie Group. To make this happen, the floors were installed overnight while the rest of the construction was done during normal business hours.

The renovated emergency room features ARDEX flooring which set in time for use the following morning. The cement-based, self-leveling underlayment was the solution to the project’s tight schedule. The flooring is fast-curing which allowed the installation to not interfere with normal hospital operations. The next day, the floor was strong enough to be able to support the weight of foot traffic and hospital beds.

The $17 million renovation was completed in five separate phases. The floor installment was divided into smaller sections as to not disturb patient care. The area was divided into 20 different sections of approximately 1,000 square feet each. One area of the floor was completed before work on any other space began., Having to keep the emergency room open during construction was slightly more challenging while installing the floor, according to a statement from Gillespie Group. The company had to make sure each small area was level with the others, which was made easier as ARDEX flooring features a self-leveling underlayment.

According to Saint Peter’s, renovations have created three distinct treatment areas that are dedicated to acute care, women’s health and rapid treatment. The acute care bay is designed to treat emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes. The women’s health bay will deal with pregnancy complications and OB/GYN emergencies. Patients in need of IV fluids and X-ray imaging will be taken to the rapid-care section of the department to allow for quick treatment.

Some of the hospital renovations were funded through donations. James S. Choma, chief development officer of Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, and executive director of the Saint Peter’s Foundation said in a statement, “We are very grateful to our benefactors, physicians, nurses and employees for their generous support of the emergency department capital campaign.”