First look inside Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital emergency department

ATLANTA - It's been nearly a decade since the Executive Park Hotel came tumbling down in November 2014.

In its wake, the towering new Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital, with 446 beds and 2 million square feet, is scheduled to open its doors September 29, 2024.

At 7 that morning, the Egleston emergency department will close down for good, as the first patients begin arriving at the Arthur M. Blank Hospital emergency department.

Laura Jones, Children's Healthcare's Vice President for Emergency Services, Trauma, Transport, Transfer Center and Special Care Unit, gave the FOX Medical Team the first look inside the new emergency department.

"It's been an adventure," Jones says.  "We've been working on this design and build for the last 9 years."

There are 69 patient rooms divided into 5 sections, each with a centralized working area for the department's 225 employees.

Children's Healthcare anticipates they will handle about 105,000 patient visits here in the first year, up from an average of 81,000 at Egleston.

And, what hits you first is the sheer size of this place.

"So, the new ED is over 70,000-square-feet, compared to our Egleston emergency department, which is 21,000-square-feet. So, it's three times the size."

Jones says their goal was to streamline the flow and care of emergency patients.

So, there is a fast-track unit for children likely to be treated and released, a special care unit for patients with highly-contagious or pathogenic illnesses, and a behavior medicine unit.

There is also an ambulance holding area, where the Children's emergency team can triage incoming patients and take over their care, freeing up EMS crews to get back on the road.

Jones says they created the holding unit at the suggestion of one of their employees, to speed up wait times for incoming ambulances.

And, the look and feel of the Arthur M. Blank Hospital emergency department is much different from the existing Egleston ED.

The bright, bold colors of the current ED have been replaced with cool blues, greens and grays, which, Jones says, are designed to mimic nature.

"It's really to create that environment of comfort, of healing," she says.

And, 19 floors up, on the hospital roof, is a landing zone for medical transport helicopters.

"We have 3 state-of-the-art helipads on the 19th, above the 19th floor of the hospital, where we can receive our own Children's Air, or we can receive other flight services where patients are coming in," Jones says.

Most patients airlifted here will end up downstairs in the emergency department's trauma unit, which will become Georgia's only level 1 pediatric trauma center when Egleston closes.

The 6 trauma bays are equipped with bedside monitors to allow the emergency team to visualize ultrasounds and other procedures as they treat patients.

Several of the trauma rooms are connected by sliding doors, designed for all parents and staffers to move from one bay to another.

Jones says they will sometimes treat more than one child from the same family, typically injured in motor vehicle accidents.

"We wanted the parents to be able to attend to both children," she says.  "So, we have created this design where you have flexibility to move between the rooms."

Right across the hall from the trauma unit are two CT scanners.

"So, when a patient, a trauma patient needs an immediate CT scan, (we have) that flexibility to move straight across the hall, get that scan, and then be able to take that patient upstairs to the O.R. or the PICU," Jones says.

It will be another month before most of the emergency department employees will get a chance to see the new emergency department for the first time.

Then, they will rotate through the facility this summer for training.

Laura Jones says she is excited to see how patient families and staff will feel about the new emergency department.

"Our staff are going to be so proud when they walk through these doors, and they see, you know, just the amazing new equipment, the amazing space that we've created, and what we can do for our patients and families in this space at the time of their greatest need," she says.