Northwest Hospital ER to get $6 million update; officials hope to reduce wait times

The emergency department at Northwest Hospital in Randallstown is getting a “much needed” $6 million face-lift, according to LifeBridge Health, the health system that owns the medical center.

Construction started Wednesday on the project, which officials hope will help reduce emergency department wait times. It’s expected to add about 2,500 square feet to the department, renovate its entrance, and “modernize” its waiting areas and triage spaces, LifeBridge Health said in a news release earlier this week.

The new space will improve the flow of patients who arrive at the emergency department by ambulance — that’s nearly a third of those who receive treatment — by allowing emergency medical service personnel to bring them directly to the triage room. That’s expected to help EMS workers get back into the field faster.

The renovation will create “three pathways” for care: a rapid evaluation unit for those with less urgent medical needs, a triage channel for more acutely ill patients who may need to be admitted to the hospital, and a waiting area for behavioral health patients.

Construction is expected to be finished next summer, the news release said. The emergency department will remain open while the project is underway.

Northwest’s emergency department treats about 45,000 patients each year and is one of the busiest in Baltimore County, the news release said. About 85% of its patients arrive through the emergency department, but the last time the area was significantly renovated was nearly 15 years ago.

Patients wait an average of 4 hours, 47 minutes in the hospital’s emergency department before leaving from the visit, according to the most recently available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That’s longer than Maryland’s average wait time — one of the longest in the country at about 4 hours, 7 minutes.