SVMC Changes Traffic Pattern for Work on New Emergency Department

Patients will approach main entrance via a new route starting Monday, January 10.

BENNINGTON, VT—January 7, 2022—Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC), will change the vehicle route to its main entrance, Emergency drop-off, and some patient parking starting Monday, January 10. The changes are part of a project to renovate and expand the SVMC Emergency Department.

The current road patients use to access the main entrance by car, which runs between the main hospital and ExpressCare/Respiratory Evaluation Center (Toolan Building), will be closed to traffic. Instead, patients and visitors will be directed to a new road along the back of the Toolan Building. This road will become the hospital’s permanent main entrance when the project is complete.

In addition, a road that currently accommodates two-way traffic, between the Medical Office Building and the former Lodge site, will become a one-way road. See the map at https://svhealthcare.org/patients-visitors/parking for details.

Emergency vehicles will continue to use current routes. Prominent signage will direct those unfamiliar with the change.

The Emergency Department Renovation and Expansion will nearly double the size of the current Emergency Department, which was designed to accommodate 14,000 patient visits a year but currently sees nearly 25,000 annually. The project will further enhance patient safety, infection prevention, and patient privacy. Vertical treatment areas will allow for highly efficient treatment of low-acuity conditions. The project also includes an expansion to the Emergency Crisis Area for those experiencing mental health distress and increased telehealth connectivity with Dartmouth-Hitchcock.

Outside the Emergency Department, the project includes renovations of the Main Entrance and café, outpatient registration area, the Imaging Department waiting area, and the phlebotomy and laboratory upgrades. An enclosed walkway will connect the Emergency Department to SVMC ExpressCare.

The traffic pattern is expected to persist until the current main entrance of the hospital is closed in March. At that time, a new temporary main entrance will be opened and new traffic routes established. Regular updates on the project will appear in SVHC’s weekly e-newsletter, on social media, and on the health system’s website, svhealthcare.org/EDRenovation.

About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, healthcare system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices.
 
SVMC has earned several prominent distinctions. Most recently, SVMC received the American Hospital Association’s Rural Healthcare Leadership Award for transformational change in efforts toward healthcare reform and its fifth consecutive designation within the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program®. It ranked fourth in the nation for healthcare value by the Lown Institute Hospitals Index in 2020 and is one of Vermont’s Best Places to Work. SVMC earned an ‘A’ for hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group for two years in a row. During the pandemic, SVMC and both its skilled nursing facilities, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation in Bennington, and the Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Hoosick Falls, earned perfect scores on a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services evaluation meant to determine the ability to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and other infections.
 
Southwestern Vermont Medical Center provides exceptional care without discriminating on the basis of an individual’s age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.