Adventist Medical Center expands emergency department

Adventist Medical Center (AMC), a southeast Portland, Ore., hospital serving the greater Portland and Vancouver, Wash., metropolitan area, has completed its third and final phase of its emergency department expansion. With this expansion, the hospital now has 32 beds in its emergency department, making it one of the largest in Portland. AMC is also one of the busiest emergency departments in the Portland metro area, serving more than 46,000 patients a year.

"As one of the busiest emergency departments in the metro area, we take pride in providing timely, quality driven care to every patient that comes through our doors," said Tom Russell, CEO of Adventist Medical Center. "From our lobby to our individual patient rooms, we've designed our emergency department to help patients reduce anxiety from the moment they arrive. No detail has been left to chance. We keep our patients and their families well informed as to their delivery of care and ensure that all of our patients have access to exceptional care they can have faith in."

The first phase of the three-part emergency department expansion was the construction of the hospital's 181,000-square-foot medical pavilion, which opened in May 2009. The pavilion increased AMC's emergency department capacity by 33 percent and incorporated the new Northwest Regional Heart Center, one of only two accredited chest-pain centers in Oregon. The second phase, which was unveiled in late 2009, was to open the hospital's state-of-the-art lobby. The 2,500-square-foot emergency department waiting room was inspired by the hospitality industry to help patients and their families relieve anxiety and commence the healing process.

AMC has multiple systems in place to ensure rapid medical evaluation of patients upon their arrival. AMC's emergency department is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The 32-bed department is staffed by specially trained emergency teams who use state-of-the-art technology to treat patients from throughout the region. Additionally, AMC is the only hospital in the Portland area to offer a fully enclosed ambulance bay which shields transport patients from inclement weather. AMC also has a rooftop helicopter pad strategically positioned above the emergency department to minimize transport time, a crucial factor in saving lives.