When the first shovels of dirt were lifted 18 months ago, Beebe Healthcare officials certainly had no idea that the South Coastal Health Campus on Route 17 in Millville would open its doors during a worldwide health crisis.
But the facility, which will be complete in a few more months when its cancer treatment center is set to open, welcomed its first Emergency Department patients on Tuesday, May 5, after a brief opening ceremony featuring new Beebe President and CEO Dr. David Tam, properly socially-distanced and masked, and shown live on Facebook.
Reporters were invited to a virtual tour of the facility days before it opened. Hosting the tour were Dr. Nicholas Perchiniak, South Coastal medical director; Loretta Ostroski, RN, director of patient care services; and Teri Wilkinson, RN, emergency department nurse manager for the South Coastal facility.
The state-of-the-art emergency department holds 14 patient rooms. Depending on the severity of the patient’s illness or injury, they will first be evaluated in one of three triage rooms and either moved into one of six bays for “vertical” patients who don’t require a bed, or taken to one of the patient rooms.
Across the hallway from the 14 patient rooms is a nurses’ station with 360-degree views of the patient rooms, according to Ostroski. The glass around the station serves the purpose of allowing that view, as well as providing sound-proofing to keep the noise in the facility down.
In addition to the patient rooms, there are others with specialized purposes, including a resuscitation room, and X-ray and imaging facilities where ultrasounds and CT scans can be done. Such equipment can also be moved into a patient room “if a patient is unstable,” Perchiniak said.
Pointing to the resuscitation room, Perchiniak noted that “Loretta and her staff have worked really hard” to make it as effective and efficient as possible. That room, he said, is “the most resourced room, for the most critical patients. There is more space and more resources here, from a medical and trauma standpoint,” than the other patient rooms, he said.
The South Coastal facility also includes an isolation room, to be used when patients are suspected of having an infectious disease. That room, Perchiniak said, has a “clean room” attached to it, where staff can change into and out of protective gear.
Each room, he said, is equipped with a patient lift, in case an unstable patient needs to be moved. All rooms are also equipped with televisions, as well as “telesitters” through which each patient can be observed by staff at Beebe Medical Center in Lewes.
Perchiniak said the department expects to see between 14,000 and 19,000 patients each year. He said anyone who thinks they need to be seen by medical professionals due to illness or injury should call 911 and let emergency responders decide whether they can be seen at the Millville facility, or, if it seems likely they’ll need to be admitted to a hospital, be taken directly to the nearest hospital facility.
“We are a free-standing emergency department,” Perchiniak said, with a goal to “evaluate and stabilize” patients.
The South Coastal facility includes a helipad, which will likely be used mostly to transport patients out to full-service hospitals, such as Beebe Medical Center in Lewes or Christiana Hospital in northern Delaware.
Attached to the waiting room is a café where families and staff can get a quick bite to eat or drink. South Coastal also includes an in-house pharmacy — meaning it will not serve the public.
Perchiniak said South Coastal staff have been working with area first-responder agencies to familiarize them with the facility, but that such efforts have been stymied a bit by the recent COVID-19 health crisis.
“Some have attended workflow meetings,” he said, but tours have been limited due to the coronavirus.
He added that the staff has been in communication with area emergency responders through emails and conference calls, with the main topic being helping those agencies to make the call as to whether a patient needs to go to the main campus or can be served at South Coastal.
For now, Ostroski said, visitors will have to follow current guidelines for hospitals, which means patients must come in unaccompanied, unless they are children or assistance is needed for another reason.
Meanwhile, the Millville Walk-In facility on Route 26 also remains open during daytime hours to see patients who feel they need to be seen by a medical professional but don’t necessarily need full emergency room facilities.
But at the South Coastal facility, the area’s first 24-hour, fully equipped free-standing emergency facility, Perchiniak announced, “We are here, and we are ready.”
