Trinity Rock Island's new ER to include a 'living room'

The new hospital addition under construction in Rock Island is exciting some health experts with a new emergency room design that takes a calming approach to patients with behavioral health issues.

Designers of the Trinity Rock Island construction project have included a large "living room" to the mental health crisis unit within the emergency department.

Trinity's new addition, to be completed in 2015, is being done by a nationally known firm called Cannon Design that has announced the living room project will be part of a multi-year research study with implications across the country.

"This could be a national model," said Dr. Whitney Austin Gray, the lead health researcher for the global firm that has offices in 15 cities around the world, including Chicago.

The data will show whether it is an effective way to treat some patients who come to receive care in the emergency department, Gray said, adding that there is no empirical research on such a program at present.

It is better understood how patients in crisis react in a normal emergency setting, said Mary A. Petersen, a registered nurse who is the director of behavioral health services for the Robert Young Center for Community Mental Health. The area is typically very busy, she said, and there can be cardiac emergencies, people with broken bones, cuts that need stitches and constant noise from alarms, announcements and ambulance sirens.

That is typical, she said. Emergency departments across the nation usually have all their patients in one general area.

"With this new model, we believe we can positively impact the care and safety of the patients," she said.

The $61.3 million addition is the biggest in the history of the hospital. Besides the emergency department, the addition is for Trinity's heart center.

The new emergency department will include a crisis stabilization unit, or CSU, Petersen said. Inside that will be the living room, a separate space with woodwork, comfortable seating, artwork, a dining room table and a saltwater fish tank.

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Trinity Rock Island's new ER to include a 'living room'