The new waiting rooms in Washington D.C.'s Providence Hospital's expanded emergency department have gotten much smaller because patients will now be registered and triaged in private rooms, according to an article on the Washington Business Journal's website.
The 60,000-square-foot emergency department has 32 treatment rooms and was designed to give the hospital a competitive edge in attracting patients.
Each triage room has electronic monitors and advanced equipment, warming blankets and TVs, hospital officials said.
It's part of a growing design trend as hospitals adapt their emergency departments to handle changing patient volumes, the article said.
The 408-bed Providence Hospital had 41,645 emergency department visits last year, but expects to field more than 45,000 cases the upcoming year.
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