Website Launched for ED Renovation and Expansion

BENNINGTON, VT—November 24, 2021—A $25.8 million project to renovate and expand the Emergency Department and Main Entrance of Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC), requires a lot of coordination and communication. The health system has launched a website to facilitate sharing news and developments about the project directly with patients. The website is located at svhealthcare.org/EDRenovation.

“We want to share the excitement of this important project with our community,” said Ray E. Smith, the administrative director of Corporate Development and public information officer for SVHC. “Additionally, the website and our ongoing communications will provide key updates to assist patients as they navigate our hospital campus during construction.”

The new website includes a project summary, photos and videos, illustrated designs of what the new Emergency Department will look like, a parking map, a project timeline, and recent updates.  In addition to the website, SVHC will change directional signage and publish regular updates to the local media, social media, and its weekly e-mail newsletter.

“The entire staff is invested in making the patients’ experience at SVMC as good as ever, even as we undergo these extraordinary changes,” Smith says.

The current Emergency Department was designed 40 years ago. The construction project 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 changes 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 Health. 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.

About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, health care 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.

Southwestern Vermont Health Care is among the most lauded small rural health systems in the nation. It is the recipient of the American Hospital Association’s 2020 Rural Hospital Leadership Award. SVMC ranked fourth nationwide for the value of care it provides by the Lown Institute Hospital Index and is a five-time recipient of the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence. It has also received the highest marks possible from the Leapfrog Group. 

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.