Emergency Department
Penn Highlands DuBois is working to become designated as a Level II Trauma Center for the benefit of patients in the region. Currently, many patients must be transferred from Penn Highlands Healthcare’s eight hospitals’ emergency departments or from the location of accidents. These patients are transferred out of the system and out of the region to facilities that are designated trauma centers in Altoona, Erie, Danville and Pittsburgh. These transfers can create hardships, travel issues, and emotional strains on family members.
As part of the accreditation process, PH DuBois is expanding the Emergency Department. In order to do this, other services in the hospital had to be relocated. The kitchen and cafeteria services were moved to the new West Wing Annex and new operating rooms and recovery areas were added to the 4th floor of the annex. Work was recently completed on the 5th floor of the annex to add TAVR (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement) services. The addition of TAVR to the cardiac surgery program provides an option for minimally invasive valve replacement services.
The new emergency department will have two finished floors. Three additional floors may be added later to support service volumes. The current emergency department has 14 acute care treatment rooms. The future emergency department will have 26 treatment rooms with four bays designed to support trauma patients' care. Recognizing the need to provide specialized care, four bays are also designed to support behavioral health needs. Rooms in the new emergency department have been designed with specific needs in mind for those who may require different equipment or a higher sense of privacy such as pediatric patients or sexual assault victims. There will be eight vertical care bays that will be used for patients who have ailments that can be treated quickly and released, many within an hour. As a Level II Trauma Center, PH DuBois must be prepared for mass casualty events. A decontamination area with deluge showers and lockdown security is also part of the expansion project. An additional helipad is also being added to accommodate increased trauma volume.
The second floor of the new emergency department is designed as a neuro/trauma critical care unit. This unit will support the needs of neurosurgery patients as well as patients needing post-trauma care. All of the rooms will be single-occupant rooms with private bathrooms. These rooms are acuity adaptable and may allow us to avoid moving patients as they progress through their hospital stay. In total, completion of this second floor will increase bed capacity by 20 additional rooms.
ED PHD Fact Sheet
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