The hospital in Blansko is preparing to move and expand the emergency department, as the current location on the third floor is no longer suitable and requires renovation. This should speed up the examination, treatment, and admission of patients. Photo credit: Nemocnice Blansko
Brno, May 30 (BD) – The main changes will be the relocation of the department from the third floor of the hospital to the ground floor, in the former nuclear medicine department, and the construction of a new entrance to the building from Sadová. The costs of CZK 75 million for the work will be mostly covered by subsidies, according to hospital spokeswoman Marie Kalová.
“There is no need to place emergency admissions close to the intensive care unit, because the concept of emergency admissions is now based on the fact that this facility has observation and resuscitation beds, whose instrumentation and technical equipment corresponds to the parameters of intensive care beds. This way, we are able to deliver an unstable patient with a collapse in basic vital functions in a fully specialised manner directly to the emergency room,” said Vladimír Navrátil, chief physician of the central emergency department.
The operation of the network of emergency admissions in the Czech Republic is regulated by the Ministry of Health. There is not enough space for that in the current outpatient clinic. “As medicine gradually develops and as the number of patients treated grows every year, the premises of the current emergency admission are becoming insufficient,” said Navrátil.
According to the hospital, moving the emergency room to the ground floor is also beneficial in order to be as close as possible to the access road used by the ambulance service, and to other departments providing diagnostic examinations. For example, a corridor should lead directly from the emergency room to the radiodiagnostics site, significantly reducing the time needed to perform CT scans.
After construction of the new facilities, a reception desk will be added. There will be a separate area in the waiting room to serve immobilised and bed-bound patients, so that they do not have to remain in uncomfortable conditions in front of other patients. A room will also be built for washing patients, and another where gastric lavage can be carried out in case of poisoning. Social facilities for patients and staff will also be expanded. A new entrance is planned for the ambulance service, separate from the pedestrian entrance.
The facility will also include an emergency medicine service and a surgical outpatient clinic for serious cases. “This means that if, for example, an ambulance brings in a person with a suspected stroke who has cracked his head open falling over, all examinations will take place much faster,” said Navrátil. “At the moment, paramedics have to take the patient to the third floor for emergency admission, from where the neurologist will send them two floors down for a CT scan, then back to the emergency room, then one floor down for surgery for treatment, and then back to the third floor. All this will be able to take place on one floor in the shortest possible route.”
The Ministry of Health will apply for a subsidy for the modification of the hospital building, which could amount to up to CZK 50 million; the program will be announced next year. “If everything goes according to plan, construction could start in 2024 and will take about a year and a half,” said hospital director Vladimíra Danihelková.
