LAFAYETTE, La. — Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center is expanding its emergency department with 11 new emergency rooms to address a significant increase in patient volume and reduce wait times for critical care.
"It's going to help increase our capacity for emergency room patients which is going to decrease wait time and nobody likes waiting in an emergency," said Zachary Barnhill, senior ER director for Lourdes.
Barnhill said the hospital has experienced a 20% to 30% patient increase in the past year, driving the need for expanded emergency services.
"We are looking to expand the ER services where we are seeing a lot of patients arrive," Barnhill said.
The expansion comes as Lafayette Parish communities continue to grow rapidly.
"When you look at Lafayette as a whole— Youngsville, Broussard, Scott— all of these areas expanding as fast as they are, there's more people and more ER visits," Barnhill tells KATC.
As part of the expansion, emergency room services at Our Lady of Lourdes Heart Hospital will be discontinued and consolidated at the regional medical center.
Julian Briggs, Vice President for Cardiovascular Services at Our Lady of Lourdes Heart Hospital, said the change is part of a larger investment in specialized care.
"We will be infusing over $25 million into our cardiovascular platform," Briggs said.
The investment will fund an additional electrophysiology lab, a new inpatient eight-bed unit and two surgical suites to support growing demand for cardiovascular services.
"The increase in demand in the cardiovascular spaces is not stopping. That platform is growing. We are seeing exponential growth," Briggs said. "These moves, as part of our advancing Acadiana plan, will help support more timely and efficient care of our patient population."
Beyond the 11 additional emergency rooms at the regional medical center, Our Lady of Lourdes Women's and Children's Hospital has plans to build a new emergency patient unit with nine rooms.
The new rooms are scheduled to open by the end of the month.
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