Rochester General Hospital expanding emergency department

Rochester, New York – In order to enhance emergency room care Rochester General Hospital will build a structure outside of the emergency department in Rochester.

According to Rochester Regional Health Chair of Emergency Medicine Dr. Keith Grams, emergency department wait times have been determined by priority – a standard that will continue. Hospital officials announced the change on Thursday.

“Our team gets very creative to ensure we can get to patients as soon as possible,” Dr. Grams said. “Prior to the pandemic, we had about a 30 minute average wait time, and that has since climbed to about 40 minutes. We’re working to see what we can do to minimize that as much as possible.”

At this time the hospital has around 78 beds between adult and pediatric emergency departments, but current demand calls for around 150 beds.

“Direct and indirect effects from the pandemic, as far as staffing and some of the vaccine mandates, that’s kind of what we’re seeing as far as our staffing challenges,” Dr. Grams explained.

It’s not just COVID-19, though. “As far as COVID the disease, this is a small factor, but we are still seeing patients come in with COVID who require admission to the hospital,” Grams added. “Please, if you are on the fence, get vaccinated.”