Wayne Memorial Hospital announces grand opening, public tours of new emergency room

HONESDALE - The moment has arrived! Wayne Memorial Hospital’s new expanded Emergency Room (ER) officially opens for patient care on Monday, November 7th. A grand opening ceremony will be held on Friday, November 4th, with: public tours from 1-3pm on Saturday and Sunday, November 5 and 6. “This is truly an exciting time for Wayne Memorial and the community it serves,” said David Hoff, Chief Executive Officer of Wayne Memorial Hospital. “For 85 years, Wayne Memorial, a non-profit hospital, has provided quality healthcare close to home for thousands of people. And we are proud to say that as that community grows, we are able to grow with it.” The new ER, Phase I of a five-year, $22-million capital expansion project, is a direct response to a population surge in the Wayne Memorial Health System service area Wayne and Pike Counties in Pennsylvania and Sullivan County in New York. The present ER sees about 17,000 patient visits a year; that number has been growing consistently by 400-600 visits annually. The new ER, about three times the size of the current ER, can accommodate up to 28,000 patient visits per year. Encompassing almost 10-thousand square feet on the ground floor of a three-story building, the new ER has 18 treatment rooms, including 14 private rooms, trauma and isolation rooms, areas for triage and cast care, an expanded waiting room, a separate walk-in entrance and dedicated ER parking slots. A private corridor has been created for stretcher entry from the ambulance drive-way. “We anticipate being able to improve patient flow in ways we just couldn’t do before, because of space limitations,” said James Pettinato, RN, Head Nurse for WMH’s ER or Emergency Department (ED).