BELFAST – On Monday, May 21, construction began on a year-long project at Waldo County General Hospital to expand and upgrade its emergency room. The project will enlarge the emergency facilities and separate that department from the main entrance to the hospital. Access to both the hospital and the emergency room will not be impeded as construction on the front entrance takes place.

Erik Frederick, Chief Operating Officer for Coastal Health Care Alliance, said the project will constitute a 5,000-square-foot expansion.

"The expansion will include the addition of six new beds, "he said. "We'll be setting staging and fencing in the next week or so, with ground work starting the week after next."

Frederick said the total cost of the project is approximately $8.6 million.

"The Waldo County Emergency Room right now has nine rooms," Frederick said. "The rooms unfortunately are not private. It's been a while since it was updated. There are a lot of curtains, privacy issues and constraints for the people who work in there."

Frederick said the expansion will allow for private rooms, more patient privacy and better flow for the clinicians who work in the emergency room.

Frederick said the trauma rooms will be refreshed and there will be a dedicated space for psychiatry patients.

Waldo County General Hospital's emergency room receives approximately 15,000 visits per year. The hospital does not anticipate a significant increase in those numbers, but the expansion will allow for better care of those who do have a need to use the facilities, administrators said.

"Given our current amount of patient visits, based on current standards, we do need the additional room," said Frederick. 

Pen Bay Medical Center and Waldo County Hospital merged in 2015 and began operating as a unified system under the legal name of Coastal Health Care Alliance. Both had already been members of Maine Health for a several years.

Frederick came to Pen Bay Medical Center as chief operating officer in 2013. He moved to the regional COO position in 2016.

"I think this shows the community that we are committed to continually invest in our local community hospitals like WCGH," he said. "Pen Bay Medical Center has an emergency room project on the horizon, as well. We want to make sure people know we are investing to continue to improve and expand care here in the county. I think it echos our commitment to make sure our communities are the healthiest in America."

The ER expansion comes on the heels of WCGH expanding its Imaging Services for Women's Health Care.

Jen Harris, who is director of Communication and Public Affairs for Pen Bay and Waldo hospitals, said the hospital expanded its technology and women's health care services in 2017.

The hospital's entire suite of radiology services had been upgraded.

"We put in a new nuclear medicine camera," he said. "We're in the process of putting in a new CT camera. A new MRI went in last year, along with the women's imaging suites. There were a lot of upgrades to our women's imaging services."

The space, named after Ann Hooper, establishes a private setting to use services associated with mammography, bone density and 3-D imaging. 

The center was named after Ann Hooper.

"Ann Hooper was the long serving director of imaging at WCGH and still serves on the board,” said Frederick.

Reach Chris Wolf at news@penbaypilot.com