Work begins on emergency department at Northside Medical Center

The ongoing transformation of Northside Medical Center into a true acute-care facility is now taking a significant and required step, with Columbus Regional Health starting construction on an emergency department that should be completed by next April.

Although a ground-breaking ceremony took place in May, general contractor Batson-Cook is now beginning work on a 17,838-square-foot addition to the hospital at 100 Frist Court, which is adjacent to Main Street Village in north Columbus. Cost of the construction alone is just under $4.7 million, according to a city building permit dated Sept. 28.

Northside, which historically has focused heavily on orthopedic surgery, currently has no emergency department. About 12,000 square feet of the newly built space will be specifically for that purpose, including 10 emergency room beds. The balance of just over 5,800 square feet of space being constructed is for future expansion to accommodate 10 more emergency room beds. There will be a 40-space parking lot.

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“We’re moving toward the ultimate goal to be a free-standing acute-care hospital to meet the needs of those in north Columbus and Harris County, and the surrounding counties on that end of the city,” Columbus Regional Health spokeswoman Jessica Word Roberts said Wednesday.

In essence, if someone has an automobile accident or suffers a nasty fall at their home in north Columbus, they will be closer to emergency treatment than the 15-minute drive or ambulance trip to Midtown Medical Center near downtown Columbus. St. Francis Hospital on Manchester Expressway, which also has an emergency services department, is about 10 minutes from Northside.

Columbus Regional Health began preparing for the expansion several years ago. It received a “certificate of need” for an emergency department from the Georgia Department of Community Health in 2014. At that time, Columbus Regional Health estimated that an emergency department Northside Medical Center would expect to have about 20,500 patient visits in its first year, then increasing from there.

Other changes that taken place at Northside Hospital over the last two years include completion of an endoscopy and cystoscopy unit in November 2015. That included 6,700 square feet of space for four procedure rooms, nine preparation and recovery rooms, and space for support services.

In March of this year, a Center for Sleep and Neurodiagnostic Studies was relocated from the closed Doctors Hospital to Northside. That work included the installation of state-of-the-art equipment and a renovation of four private patient rooms to give them blackout shades, special fans designed to alleviate dust, and noise machines.

Scott Hill, president and chief executive officer at Columbus Regional Health, said in a statement Wednesday that he and his staff are excited about the future of Northside Medical Center.

“Through programmatic growth and investments in the expansion of the physical plant, we are creating a new access point into our health system that will meet the needs of all our patients, and the community as a whole,” he said.

Northside Medical Center changed its name from Hughston Hospital 2013. It has long been a hub for orthopedic surgeries since opening in 1984. But it has added general surgery to the mix, including abdominal, breast and colon procedures, as well as plastic surgery.

This story was originally published October 4, 2017 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Work begins on emergency department at Northside Medical Center."