St. Luke's Roosevelt/Roosevelt Hospital Emergency Department Expansion, New York, NY

RBSD is responsible for a multi-phased project to expand the emergency department at Roosevelt Hospital. This $12.5 million project will enable the Hospital to accommodate a sharp rise in Emergency Department demand caused by unparalleled growth in the surrounding community and the closure of a nearby hospital. RBSD will work with the Hospital to develop the optimal layout, design, and phasing plans to double the Emergency Department capacity by expanding the Department to 53 beds.

The primary project challenge involves phasing the renovations so that the bed count will not be reduced while the renovations are taking place. The design and phasing plan developed by RBSD will accomplish this goal, and actually increase the Hospital's capacity as soon as the first phase of the project is completed.

RBSD is accomplishing this by building new Emergency Department facilities in recently vacated spaces adjacent to the existing Emergency Department. During the first phase of the project, this space will be renovated to provide additional Emergency Department beds. Once these new beds are ready to be used, work can begin on the second phase of the project, the renovations of a portion of the existing Emergency Department. Once this phase is complete, the remaining areas of the existing Emergency Department can be upgraded in Phase 3. In this way, the Emergency Department is doubled without ever having minimized its original capacity.

In addition to increasing the overall bed count, the renovations will improve Roosevelt Hospital's emergency facilities by creating an open layout that better facilitates efficiency and staff supervision. The layout of the new Emergency Department is based on a "no waiting" concept, with no waiting rooms, and a larger number of triage rooms. These triage rooms could, if necessary, extend into the fast-track cubicles so that they could be used for triage as well.

The design provides specific considerations for locating the imaging department in such a way that access for the fast track/emergency, clinic and after-hours patients leads to different circulation paths. The renovated Emergency Department also features significant provisions for dealing with potential hazardous materials situations.