CULLMAN, Ala. – Cullman Regional on Tuesday held a brief ribbon cutting for its updated emergency department. The $9.5 million expansion, which increased the ER’s capacity by 80%, includes 17 new patient rooms, three new trauma rooms, a behavioral health care area and a more substantial, modernized waiting room.
“For patients and their families there can be so much anxiety when coming to the ER,” said Cullman Regional Chief Nursing Officer Charna Brown. “We want to do everything we can to make the patient experience better and this new facility helps us achieve that goal.”
Emergency Department Director Chad Knop shared, “We are so happy to be finished with this construction project. Going through COVID it was controlled chaos. Now, it is bright, shiny and new. In my opinion, and I’ve worked in several different ERs, we have the nicest ER in the state.”
He expounded on the expansion, which was undertaken to meet the demands of population growth in Cullman and surrounding areas. The hospital’s ER has been operating slightly over capacity for the last several years.
“We have the rooms that we need now, and we desperately needed them years ago,” said Knop. “We have 25 treatment rooms. We have four express chairs and nine additional rooms specific to behavioral health. The behavioral health rooms are down the side of the ER and in its own area. It’s a little more controlled and quieter without the stimuli of being with the other rooms. The patients seem to be much happier with that addition.”
Cullman Regional CEO James Clements said, “It’s vital that our hospital invest in facilities, talent and technology that will provide the health care our community needs now and in the future.”
Already underway is the hospital’s four-story addition which will double the critical care unit’s size and increase the medical surgical unit’s bed count. That project is slated to be completed some time next year. The hospital partnered with Doster Construction and TRO Jung Brannen Architects on both projects.
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