$1 Million McMurry Gift
Mick and Susie McMurry helped kick-off the “Saving Lives, the Time is Now!” campaign with a generous $1 million gift. “I have sat on hospital boards and volunteered in the Auxiliary for over 15 years,” said Susie McMurry. “And I’ve been in the Emergency Department. Mick and I believe in this project – it’s going to benefit the whole state!”
“The McMurry’s gift has been a tremendous boost to our campaign,” said Shawn Bassham, Executive Director of the Hospital’s Foundation. “They are Casper’s leading philanthropists. We could not complete this campaign without their support.”
The Emergency Department is going to grow from its current 17 beds into 39 beds. The ED will remain open throughout construction and to minimize affects to patients, the project will be completed in phases.
Goal #1: Patient Satisfaction
Hospitals around the country are suffering a similar challenge: overcrowding and long wait times in their Emergency Departments. “Casper has grown faster than we expected,” said Mary Lynne Shickich, WMC’s Chief Planning Officer. The other challenge is people without a family physician or who are uninsured: they use the ED as a doctor’s office because they have nowhere else to go.
Wyoming Medical Center’s Emergency Department is a Level II Trauma facility and has the state’s only fixed-wing and helicopter service. Individuals throughout the state are flown here every day for life-saving medical treatment. Patients with less severe conditions, however, are experiencing longer wait times.
The solution? A multi-track Emergency Department that separates patients by acuity. Patients suffering life-threatening conditions will be treated in one area while non-emergent cases are ‘fast tracked’ in a different area. “The new ED is going to be much more efficient,” Shickich said. “If all you need is a cut stitched up, we’ll get you in and out quickly. But if you have a live-threatening trauma, we will still have the best team of medical professionals here and ready to treat you.”
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Emergency Department Visits in 2009
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| Emergency Room Visits |
33,750
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| Average Visits Per Day |
92.5
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| Ambulance Calls |
5,908
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| Life Flight Calls |
646
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