Employees leave mark on hospital’s expanding emergency department

The new emergency department at McLeod Seacoast isn’t even open yet, but employees already are leaving their mark there.

Doctors, nurses, administrators and other workers in the Little River hospital took a few minutes Tuesday to write messages and sign their names on a wall in the future emergency department, which is under construction and expected to be done in February.

The $5 million expansion of the emergency department is the largest growth project ever done at the hospital. The emergency department will nearly double in size to 9,600 square feet with 24 exam rooms, including three state-of-the-art trauma bays. Each of the exam rooms will be private.

There also will be a fast track area to treat less complex emergency cases, which should help ease congestion and lower wait times, officials said.

But the emergency department isn’t the only area at Seacoast that’s growing. A planned concourse addition will change the appearance of McLeod Seacoast and offer a public thoroughfare at the hospital entrance. The hospital has been expanding to keep up with growing demand for services, officials have said.

About 200 of the hospital’s 450 employees signed the emergency department wall, which will be encased for preservation but the messages will not be visible once construction is done, officials said.

This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Employees leave mark on hospital’s expanding emergency department."