IU Health hospital, faced with patient overload, expands its emergency room

A post-pandemic surge in patients prompted IU Health Bedford to increase the size of its emergency department by more than 50%.

Last year, the hospital’s emergency room saw just over 23,500 patients, a 54% increase since 2018.

“Our emergency room was not designed for this volume,” said Larry Bailey, director of operations at IU Health Bedford Hospital.

He said the expansion project will add six emergency care rooms to the existing 11, with the new rooms being created in the current intensive care unit. This transition from intensive care to emergency, Bailey said, requires very little construction and would take only a few days of work, but it will provide more and larger treatment rooms than the current emergency department.

The additional space will give patients more privacy and provide staff with a better environment to provide care, he said.

The hospital is also creating a new intensive care unit, which Bailey said has been in operation for about seven weeks. That work, taking place in the former medical-surgical unit, which will be moved elsewhere, required the removal of some walls and significant improvements, he said, including a new HVAC system to ensure the rooms meet to intensive care standards.

The $2 million expansion will also require the hospital to add staff, though Bailey did not immediately know how much.

Bailey said if all goes as planned, the hospital will open the new intensive care unit on Tuesday and the new emergency room on Thursday. Patients will enter the emergency department through the current entrance and register at the same window.

He said he did not expect the expansion to have a significant impact on wait times which, before the expansion, averaged 12 minutes from entering the emergency room to the time of triage.

Bailey said local emergency rooms are seeing a surge in patients like much of the rest of the country, in part because of pent-up demand after the pandemic.

During the pandemic, many patients delayed care because hospitals were crowded with COVID-19 patients. These delays have created a backlog of patients who are now trying to obtain health services, driving demand beyond what providers normally see.

Bailey said Bedford Hospital was also seeing a greater number of patients because a rival hospital, Ascension St. Vincent Dunn, closed in December 2022.

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Hospital officials also said emergency rooms are crowded in part because patients are seeking care in emergency settings that could be treated at urgent care facilities. Bailey said IU Health has distributed information to help patients choose the right path of care.

IU Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Sparzo said in May that patients who have health conditions that are life-threatening or could cause permanent disability — heavy bleeding, chest pain, severe burns or seizures – should go to the emergency room. However, people with illnesses that are not life-threatening but require urgent attention (flu-like symptoms, earaches, broken bones) can seek treatment at an urgent care facility.

Boris Ladwig can be contacted at [email protected].