By Kathy L. Collins
Recently the community gathered for a ribbon cutting ceremony at Brandon Regional Hospital’s new Emergency Room (ER). Attendees were offered tours of the newly expanded facility.
Phase one of the three phase $60 million expansion will open in April. The first phase adds 22,000 sq. ft., 40 new exam rooms including an area for pediatrics and a new main entrance for easier access. The new ER entrance is off of Oakfield Drive. The newly completed phase also includes state-of-the-art trauma rooms, private patient rooms where nurses can chart on computers in the room, two new X-Ray machines, two additional 64-slice CT machines and upgraded ultrasound equipment.
Phase two, which will open in January 2017, will have eight new exam rooms, four new trauma rooms, centrally located imaging and a new ambulance entrance with helipad.
Phase three, which will open in May 2017, will include a dedicated 16 room pediatric department and dedicated pediatric emergency room entrance.
When completed, 45,000 sq. ft. will have been added. Brandon Regional Hospital is the fifth busiest ER in the state of Florida. The hospital serves approximately 120,000 patients each year. To keep up with patient demands and needs, the hospital allocated 60 million dollars to a multi-phase expansion.
Brandon Regional Hospital CEO, Bland Eng said, “This is a bold step for the hospital to take for the residents of Brandon. What a gem of a community Brandon is. This expansion is the transformation from the past to the future. We are stepping into the future. A hospital’s ER is the front door of the hospital. Now the surroundings and physical environment of the hospital will be a mirror image of the care given by exceptional healthcare workers at Brandon Regional Hospital.”
Brandon Regional Hospital has been providing emergency care to families of the greater Brandon area since 1977. It should be noted that during the construction of the massive expansion, the hospital stayed open and there was no reduction in services or capabilities.
Brandon Regional Hospital is located at 119 Oakfield Dr. in Brandon. Visit www.Brandonregionalhospital.com.
