AAMC has temporarily relocated its emergency room entrance and triage area, and Baltimore Washington Medical Center has built barriers to keep construction debris from contaminating patients' space.
"They've done a great job in containing the noise," said Dr. Neel Vibhakar, assistant director of the BWMC emergency room.
He said his staff has kept the waiting time low, at an average of 22 minutes per patient but that that the expanded facility, with an annual capacity to treat more than 100,000 rather than the current 60,000, will lead to major improvement.
"The expansion will tremendously help our patients in getting seen quicker," he said.
Construction at BWMC is slightly ahead of schedule, partly because of the mild winter, said Bruce Seeley, director of facilities engineering.
AAMC plans to do its work in stages. With the new garage open, it has churned up the old surface lot to make way for the Ambulatory Services Pavilion. In the final phase, it will add the tower and new emergency room along with more parking.
The hospitals have built flexibility into their expansions to prepare for additional growth. Some of the floors in each hospital's tower will be empty shells ready to complete when the need arises.
The state limits the hospitals' freedom to expand beyond their projected capacity, partly to guard against their drawing patients away from other hospitals.
"What we want to make sure of is that there is capacity to meet need, but we don't want more capacity than is necessary," said Pam Barclay, a director at the Maryland Health Care Commission.
Officials at both hospitals said they are drawing more people from the surrounding region, due to their specialty care and the quality of their emergency rooms. Neither emergency room turns away patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
"We are the safety net for the community," Mooradian said, adding, "Our volumes dictate what we do, we don't dictate our volumes."
Neither expansion will address the lack of cardiac surgery services in the county. Cardiologists at both hospitals can perform emergency angioplasty but must send patients with more complex needs to other hospitals, sometimes by helicopter. They also cannot perform elective heart surgeries, although Barclay said both hospitals are seeking approval to start doing them.
Doordan predicted the expansion process will continue both at the main hospital and through the diagnostics centers they are adding throughout the county.
"In the foreseeable future, there are a lot more needs of the folks than we possibly can take care of," he said.
david.zenlea@baltsun.com
