Tampa General shows off new emergency room

RN Deana Nelson of Tampa General Hospital, gives a tour of one of the six new trauma bays at the hospital this morning. [Carrie Pratt | Times]

TAMPA -- Tampa General Hospital says it's prepped for luxury but planning for disaster with its new emergency room, which was unveiled this morning before a staff disaster drill.

The new emergency room, the Tampa Bay area's only level one trauma center, is about 65,000 square feet, more than twice its old size. It's designed so that the staff can cope with large disasters. In the event of a terrorist attack, plane crash or other crisis, the emergency room can handle triple its normal patient load. It also has isolation rooms and mass decontamination showers.

The new facility can handle 250 patients at once in an emergency.

"It's great news for the citizens of Tampa Bay. Not only will we be able to take more trauma patients, but our waiting times will be shorter," said Ron Hytoff, CEO of the hospital.

The emergency room was designed so that patients can move easily from admitting to treatment. There's a hallway leading straight from the ambulance ramp to the trauma bays. There's another leading directly to operating rooms -- a shorter trip than the current emergency room, where staffers have to take patients through an elevator before surgery.

Patients who arrive on their own go first to triage rooms, where emergency staffers can review their symptoms and send them for further care. The hospital has separate areas to care for chest pain, stroke, and other conditions.

The new emergency room is on the second floor, 22 feet above sea level. Hospital officials say it won't have to be evacuated in a hurricane, despite the hospital's location on low-lying Davis Islands.

The emergency room also boasts features designed for patient comfort: 66 private treatment rooms, a coffee bar for visitors and a pediatric emergency center with a nautical theme and a children's play area.

"It's stressful to be in the emergency room, so we wanted to make it as least stressful as possible,'' said Deana Nelson, the hospital's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The emergency room is part of the hospital's 340,000-square-foot Bayshore Pavilion addition, which in all cost $190-million. When complete, the pavilion will include a new intensive care unit, women's center, cardiovascular center and digestive treatment center.

- Lisa Greene, Times staff writer