The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Hospital ERs merge

Community Mercy will close emergency department  at Fountain Boulevard campus.

Community Mercy Health Partners CEO Mark Wiener.

Air Force, union sign new labor agreement
5:57 p.m.
First Mercy hospital union contract ratified
11:26 a.m.
Kasich: Education will lead to new jobs
8:52 a.m.
Pit bull shot in the leg during domestic dispute
8:50 a.m.
County may now reduce parks funding by 68%
8:45 a.m.
> More headlines

By Kelly Mori, Staff Writer Updated 8:59 AM Wednesday, March 10, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — Community Mercy Health Partners has completed the consolidation of emergency services to its High Street campus and will close the emergency department at the Fountain Boulevard campus on March 29, hospital officials announced Tuesday, March 9.

Officials announced in December that they would gradually move all emergency services and personnel to the High Street campus as the hospital system prepares to move into its new $235 million medical center in early 2012.

The consolidation began nearly two years ago and has been done in a “thorough, thoughtful and gradual manner,” said CEO Mark Wiener.

In early 2008, all inpatient services were moved from the Fountain campus to High Street.

At the same time, paramedics and EMTs were asked to bring all patients who were possible candidates for admission to the High Street campus, which has added 10 more treatment rooms and a second triage station.

The result has been a 9 percent decrease in wait time despite a 4 percent increase in volume, said Dr. Rohn Kennington, medical director of emergency services.

The hospital system had more than 77,000 visits in 2009.

In the last two months all ambulances have been going to the High Street campus, Kennington said.

The Fountain campus has seen about 50 “walk-in” emergency room patients daily.

Less than 5 percent of those walk-ins have required admissions, he said. The majority could have been treated in urgent care centers.

One emergency room will allow for more flexible staffing for peak and non-peak volume times, he said.

In addition, patients will be in the same building as the catheterization lab, cardiology services and physician specialists. That alone will reduce wait times, he said.

After March 29, the former Mercy hospital building on Fountain Boulevard will be closed to the public.

But the campus will still house:

• Springfield Regional Imaging Center

• Springfield Regional Sleep Center

• Bright Beginnings Day Care Center

• Community Mercy Med Assist and REACH

• Acute Rehabilitation Center

• Mercy St. John’s Center

Mental Health Services, not affiliated with Community Mercy, is also located on the campus.

Wittenberg University is actively seeking ways to acquire some portion of the Fountain Boulevard campus, once it’s vacated with the opening of the Springfield Regional Medical Center in 2012.

The university is working with Community Mercy and the city on funding avenues to either renovate or demolish the portion of the campus the university acquires, Wiener said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0347  or kmori@coxohio.com.

Mark Wiener

Share this article