Austin Medical Center has been undergoing a rolling renovation for more than two years now.

Thursday, January 13, 2000

Austin Medical Center has been undergoing a rolling renovation for more than two years now. It’s been one step at a time, but the most recent change is a significant one.

The new entrance to Urgent Care and the emergency room has opened, bring the patients who need rapid care that much closer to where they need to be.

Robben Crabtree, emergency room nurse manager, easily navigated the construction in the hallways a week before the area was declared open.

"We have a memo which tells us what’s been changed," she said with a chuckle.

A week later, the entrance way is clear and the sign outside proudly proclaims the entrance to the ER/Urgent Care ward, with its own admitting desk and its own parking area.

Once a person comes into the ER/Urgent Care entrance, they will go straight to a desk staffed by both clinic and hospital staff. They will be interviewed by a triage nurse, who will decide what level of care they need in a triage room.

"There are three levels of care," Crabtree explained. "Critical, urgent care, and non-urgent."

Critical patients are seen right away, with a bedside registration performed as they are seen. Urgent care patients are registered, and non-urgent cases are sent to the appropriate desks in the medical center.

That’s just the first stage in a significantly changed area. The whole section has been reworked, with individual rooms for different kinds of care.

"Where the nurses station was, will be an isolation room," Crabtree explained. An isolation room acts as a sort of quarantine station, with even the ventilation not shared with the rest of the area.

There are two procedure rooms shared by the urgent care and emergency room, as well as five regular examination rooms.

"We’re trying to specialize a room for each procedure," medical center spokeswoman Tami Oldfather said.

"We’re also right next door to X-ray, which will be nice for patients," Crabtree said. Previously, an urgent care patient who needed X-rays needed to be wheeled from one end of the medical center to the other and back again.

Crabtree indicated the improvements are just that – improved and much so.

"I think this will be really nice for our patients," she said, indicating the sweeping changes to the area. "Communication is going to be a lot better."

Not only will communication be better, so will the hours. The urgent care facilities at Austin Medical Center, a part of Mayo Heath System, will be open until 8 p.m. weekdays, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.