Major renovation and expansion project underway at Allegheny General Hospital's emergency department
Allegheny General Hospital is undergoing a renovation and expansion of its emergency department. The $43 million project is expected to take in more people, be more private, and provide more care.
One of the challenges of expansion and doing construction on your emergency department is taking care of patients while doing work to care for more in the future. Construction is set to be done over five steps to try and minimize disruptions. Patients will notice some temporary walls.
Last year, Highmark Health and AHN said they were making a brand-new $1 billion investment in their flagship academic medical center, including the new emergency department.
"To allow us to stay fully open. Fully functional while we're actively constructing the new ED around the area," AGH emergency department medical director Dr. Brent Rau said.
Dr. Rau said this plan was a couple of years in the making.
The current emergency department is about two decades old and in need of an upgrade.
As a Level I Trauma Center, they see about 43-46,000 people a year. Currently, the emergency department has enough rooms for 32 patients; it will have 48 patient beds with 57 treatment rooms after the upgrades.
"Our hope is that with this emergency department, that should at least improve. We will get more patients out of the waiting room into rooms where they are going to be treated in private rooms," Dr. Rau said.
While there are no hard numbers, an expansion means more staff. That is welcome news to the Northside North Shore Chamber of Commerce.
"It just naturally flows that workforce is also going to come with that to provide additional jobs," Chamber Executive Director Carrie Nolan-Robson said.
"We also want to give patients as much one-on-one time as possible without overextending our providers as well," Dr. Rau said.
AGH is one of the hubs of the neighborhood, and when a staple like that is expanding, it helps grow more business and residents.
"They're deeply rooted in the community, and we're just really excited to hear of the development," Nolan Robson said.
AHN says the expansion and renovation work will be done in five different stages so that patient care is minimally disrupted.
Other phases will include relocating and expanding trauma and resuscitation rooms, trauma bays equipped with new technology, and new staff lounges.
Work is expected to be done by the end of 2027.
