Fort Walton Beach Medical Center readies $31 million emergency room expansion
More than 9,000 square feet will be added to the hospital's ER, which has been sorely needed since a mental health facility in the area shut.
Fort Walton Beach Medical Center in Florida will soon grow in size thanks to a $31 million construction project that's scheduled to begin within the next few months.
New features will include a new 420-space parking garage and more than 9,000 new square feet added to the hospital's emergency room, which has been sorely needed since a mental health facility in the area shut down.
"Our ERs are very busy these days," said Fort Walton Beach CEO Mitch Mongell. "This community had a challenge with mental health patients when the local facility shut down, so that volume ended up in our ERs."
[Also: Elkhart General Hospital opens $83 million surgery center expansion]
When the mental health center shuttered its doors, he said, there was a huge influx of patients into the hospital's emergency department -- representing between 3,800 and 4,000 patient-days (which are calculated by averaging a typical patient's length of stay).
Mongell said the new ER space should be a safer environment for patients, staff and physicians.
"So the clinicians will have a new space," he said. "It's like being in a new house. It's exciting."
Rendering of the new emergency center (via Fort Walton Beach Medical Center)
Aside from tending to the needs of mental health patients, the new emergency room should be able to move all patients more quickly through the system. The focus will be in more immediate bedding, so less time will be spent in waiting rooms, with the overall length of stay decreasing appreciably.
Funding was approved through the Hospital Corporation of America, the entity that owns the hospital, said Steve Moore, CFO of Fort Walton Beach Medical Center.
"It'll be provided through various sources," said Moore. "It could be strictly through cash or the credit lines that they have. It's all internal funding."
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The parking project will be completed first, sometime within the next 20 months.
"We're sort of landlocked with buildings around us, so parking is at a premium," said Moore. "So the parking garage is going to be extremely beneficial to the growth plan of the hospital over the next two years."
Fort Walton Beach Medical Center is part of the North Florida divison of the HCA, which operates four hospitals in the panhandle market. All have expansions on the horizon.
Moore and Mongell credit Michael Joyce, president of the North Florida divison, with having the vision to initiate concurrent expansion efforts.
Twitter: @JELagasse
