Expanded emergency dept. opens at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital

Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital’s expanded emergency department, billed as one of the largest in the state, opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The department is the first facility to welcome patients in the Roanoke hospital’s new Crystal Spring Tower, a $500 million expansion for Roanoke Memorial that’s expected to fully launch this summer. The tower will also be home to Carilion’s Cardiovascular Institute, which will house all cardiac and vascular care, including three cardiothoracic surgery operating rooms. Contractors on the project are Alabama-headquartered Robins & Morton and Branch Builds, a Roanoke-based construction management firm.

The Roanoke hospital’s expanded emergency department includes a dedicated pediatric emergency waiting area, triage space and patient rooms, as well as the region’s first dedicated Level 1 pediatric trauma bay.

Carilion Roanoke Memorial has the region’s only Level 1 trauma center and pediatric trauma center. The designation means the facility is able to provide comprehensive trauma care for all injuries.

Other features of the expanded emergency room are four other trauma bays, an expanded observation unit and 125 emergency department beds, a 54-bed increase over the former emergency department.

A new helipad also opened Tuesday to serve the health system’s three Carilion Life-Guard helicopters and other medevac teams, which bring patients from more than 65 other facilities, according to Hannah Curtis, a spokesperson for Carilion Clinic.

“The ED and helipad expanded access will help to meet growing community needs and offer a seamless entry for patients in need of acute care when seconds matter — like heart attack or stroke patients,” she said in a statement.

The facility also comes with a new entrance: the public can drop patients off at a traffic circle in front of the Crystal Spring Tower. Visitors also have the option of parking in a new Carilion garage at the corner of McClanahan Street and Jefferson Street.

Initially, the expanded emergency department had been slated to open April 15 but the opening was pushed back due to construction issues.

Based in Roanoke, Carilion Clinic is a nonprofit health care organization serving nearly 1 million people in Virginia through hospitals, outpatient specialty centers and primary care practices. It has more than 13,000 employees. Earlier this month, Carilion received the state’s blessing to move forward with a kidney transplant program.