Since Jefferson Health made the decision to close the emergency department at Elkins Park Hospital, the ER staff at Temple Health’s Jeanes has been seeing a 15% increase in visits, writes John George for Philadelphia Business Journal.

Matt Shelak, the executive director of the Jeanes campus, said that they were prepared though, and an expansion to handle a larger capacity had already been in the works.

In February, Jeanes opened an 11-bed observation unit as a place where hospital staff can place patients while they are waiting to see if they will be admitted or discharged. This frees up space in the emergency room, Shelak said.

And in April, Jeanes opened a second triage room in the ER. Shelak added, “We also opened an internal waiting room where we can start some procedures. Since doing all of this we have seen a decrease in our door-to-doc time and an increase in our turnaround time for lab results and for radiology results — which improves our throughput.”

An addition to the emergency department is the next stage of the expansion.

Read more about what the addition will look like in Philadelphia Business Journal.

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Safety precautions at Temple’s Jeanes Campus.