Midwest.(Howard Regional Health System opens new emergency unit)(Good Samaritan Hospital starts construction work)(Rod Blagojevich extends certificate of need law )

Modern Healthcare, June, 2007

KOKOMO, Ind.-Howard Regional Health System has opened a new 28,000-square-foot emergency department. The 149-bed hospital, operated by Howard County, planned the space to better accommodate the `persistent use of the emergency room for primary care. Six of the new space's 25 private rooms are part of a segregated fast-track area, which James Alender, the system's president and chief executive officer, says he expects will handle as many as half of the department's 26,000 annual visits. The $9.9 million project was financed with tax-exempt bonds. Subsequent phases of construction expected to cost another $12.5 million will add 29 private medical-surgical and OB/GYN rooms above the emergency room, with a helipad on the roof, and then a 16-bed intensive-care unit. Other...

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