LGMC President and CEO David Callecod announced plans on Monday to construct a four-story addition to the hospital along with a six-story parking garage.
The Lafayette General Medical Center is about to see yet another face lift. LGMC President and CEO David Callecod announced plans on Monday to construct a four-story addition to the hospital along with a six-story parking garage.
Rendering of ED/OR Expansion
The Advocate reports that the $52 million project will offer a major technological upgrade to the facility including a cutting edge trauma elevator that will shave precious minutes off of a trauma patient's journey from the helipad to the new emergency room and operating areas:
The new surgical and emergency department expansion will front South College Road and add 82,000 square feet to the hospital. The expansion will feature 13 state-of-the-art operating rooms and will increase emergency department bed capacity from 31 to 45. Two new trauma rooms also will be added.
Construction breaks ground Monday at 10 a.m. and is expected to wrap up in the summer of 2014. This latest expansion comes after last year's completion of the hospital's previous two-year $70 million renovation that expanded patient rooms and rebuilt the building's façade.
The Advocate also reports that this new expansion was necessary after the notable increase in patient volume the hospital has recently encountered:
The hospital's emergency department volume places it as "one of the five busiest emergency departments in the state of Louisiana," Callecod said.
The emergency department saw nearly 60,000 patients in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, and 64,000 patients are projected to seek services this fiscal year, Callecod said.
Read more from the Advocate here.