As work continues to nearly double the size of Kaweah Delta Medical Center’s Emergency Department, the hospital will on Thursday, March 14, temporarily relocate its ED waiting and registration area.
For the next four to five months, people seeking care at Kaweah Delta’s Emergency Department, will enter the hospital’s main entrance at 400 W. Mineral King Ave., Visalia. Just inside the Mineral King Lobby, will be the temporary Emergency Department waiting and registration area. In addition to registration, it will offer an area for staff to take patient vitals, along with expanded seating.
Kaweah Delta’s Emergency Department is currently undergoing a multi-phase expansion that is expected to be complete in Summer 2020. It will modernize, expand and improve Kaweah Delta’s ED facilities to better serve patients and meet the needs of the growing community by:
- Growing the number of patient beds from 41 to 74 beds
- Nearly doubling the size of the waiting room to accommodate 100+ patients
- Adding a new area that will allow patients to be more quickly screened.
Kaweah Delta’s ED was originally built to serve 72,000 patients a year, but today, staff there cares for more than 90,000 patients a year. There is now a patient navigator in the ED who makes sure that patients are getting the care they need. In addition to answering questions and helping patients understand the process of care in the ED, the patient navigator, a Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) can also monitor patient vital signs. Kaweah Delta has also made changes to ensure that after patients are seen by a registered nurse upon arrival and have vitals taken by an ED technician, they are seen by a doctor within 30 minutes of arrival, so that if any tests are needed, they can be ordered.