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Q&A
Issues with Elmhurst Hospital emergency room and potential expansion
0:29:50
·
5 min
Council Member Narcisse raises concerns about long wait times and capacity issues at Elmhurst Hospital's emergency room. Dr. Katz acknowledges the problems and discusses the challenges of expanding the facility.
- Elmhurst Hospital's emergency department handles three times its intended capacity
- The hospital is landlocked, making expansion challenging
- Discussion of potential solutions, including using Baxter Street for expansion
- Emphasis on the need for capital funding and support from OMB for expansion projects
Mercedes Narcisse
0:29:50
Recently there have been complaints regarding the Elmhurst emergency room that are similar to those at Metropolitan Emergency Room.
0:29:58
Patients in the Elmhurst emergency room are experiencing extremely long wait times.
0:30:04
The staff does not have the capacity to meet the demand and it's clear that the emergency room needs to be expanded to meet the healthcare needs of the surrounding community which you already alluded to.
0:30:17
Is HNH aware of the issues with Elmhurst Hospital emergency room?
0:30:23
Does HNH share my belief that Elmhurst emergency room needs to be expanded?
0:30:28
You spoke about it but I'm gonna tell you from my own personal experience back then it was bad.
0:30:37
So I went to visit, it was a shame.
0:30:40
So I don't know how we're gonna get this done.
0:30:45
Is this part of the list of the capital?
Mitchell Katz
0:30:48
Yes, but the list that John refers is a $2,000,000,000 list.
0:30:53
I mean we our facilities are way beyond their projected life.
0:31:02
We just keep things going because the people need our services and we're going to keep going as long as we can.
0:31:09
To your point, chair, the volume, the average volume at Elmhurst is three times the size that the ED was built for.
0:31:19
You build an ED, you know what the size is.
0:31:21
It's meant to handle a certain number of patients per day.
0:31:25
And we handle three times that amount at Elmhurst.
0:31:29
And in some ways, it's a nice thing.
0:31:32
The community deeply trusts Elmhurst.
0:31:35
People keep going to Elmhurst.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:31:37
Keep coming.
Mitchell Katz
0:31:37
Right.
0:31:38
There are other hospitals that people could go to.
0:31:41
And they go to Elmhurst because they feel safe at Elmhurst.
0:31:46
And they feel cared for and that they're not made to feel bad for being poor.
0:31:54
Elmhurst in some ways is a more challenging problem than Met because the, as you know, the plot of land, it's kinda landlocked.
0:32:05
It's got streets, and you gave me an idea.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:32:08
I'll you a street.
0:32:09
Right.
0:32:09
Baxter.
Mitchell Katz
0:32:10
But, I think is a very interesting idea, but that's part of our struggle has been, well where would we build it?
0:32:17
Right?
0:32:18
And you have to build it somewhere where you're still running what you have.
0:32:22
Right?
0:32:22
We can't close half of Elmhurst and knock it down and build something new, right?
0:32:28
We've got to keep doing what we're doing and build something new.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:32:31
Yeah.
0:32:32
But I have an imagination how we can be done since I've been in the ER.
0:32:37
So, that's the reason I was talking about Baxter Street.
0:32:40
Since we have chair for transportation with us, I think we need to make a plan for that and I have my vision and we can talk about this offline because I think we can be still functioning because the ramp where the ambulance come, so that's where you're gonna build that.
0:32:56
I'm not an engineer but we have ideas.
Mitchell Katz
0:32:58
Oh I love the
Mercedes Narcisse
0:32:58
idea.
0:32:59
It's So thank you.
0:33:03
Does H and H believe that this capital project can be funded in the short term?
0:33:09
In the near future?
Mitchell Katz
0:33:11
Without help from OMB.
0:33:12
OMB would have to, and I know, and again this is not to to put pressure on them, they have a lot of needs that the city has.
0:33:21
And I'm not expert on, you know, how large their capital budget is to disperse.
0:33:28
But they know we need it.
0:33:29
And I think they know, you know, that that your committee has discussed these issues and sees them as critical.
0:33:37
And and Met and Elmhurst EDs are at the top of our list.
0:33:44
And I say that also recognizing a lot of what we use capital for are things like the air handler goes down.
0:33:53
Right?
0:33:54
Well, if the air handler goes down, you can't run a hospital.
0:33:57
So we wind up a lot of a lot of what people would call capital dollars.
0:34:02
In the end, we wind up spending on coolers and boilers and elevators.
0:34:08
I know.
0:34:09
Because, again, in the absence of, you know, other things, what can you do?
0:34:16
You can't run a hospital without an air cooler.
0:34:19
You can't run it without a boiler.
0:34:22
And so it's not as if we can take all the capital dollars and use them to build new things.
0:34:29
We have to keep the existing things going.
0:34:31
And again, with space as well, that's always the challenge hospital is you can't close it to build something new.
0:34:39
And so you always are building on a working hospital, which makes it more expensive always, and just physically more challenging.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:34:50
So you know how much that will cost to get an emergency room at the Elmhurst Hospital?
Mitchell Katz
0:34:55
We've always talked with Elmhurst as a multiphasic plan, so I don't know if we have an estimate of just the ED.
0:35:03
Yeah, not yet.
0:35:04
Right, because again, the whole question with Elmhurst is where.
0:35:07
Exactly.
0:35:08
You gotta knock down something.
Farah N. Louis
0:35:10
Or
Mitchell Katz
0:35:12
Baxter Street, I'm gonna go back and look at my maps as soon as I'm done with this meeting, because I like that It
Mercedes Narcisse
0:35:19
can be an open street.
0:35:20
We have ideas, but I'm gonna continue that with the transportation
Mitchell Katz
0:35:23
I'm so glad you have that close connection with the transportation chair, although I think she's sinking into her seat.