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Salem Hospital opens new emergency room drop-off with clearer signage

The new emergency room entrance at Salem Hospital opened in April 2022 as part of the hospital’s renovation and expansion to add more patient beds. (Courtesy/Salem Health)

Salem Hospital has a new entrance to its emergency room.

The redesigned plaza and entrance, which opened earlier this month, are part of a construction and expansion project at the region’s largest hospital.

A new building with space for 150 patients is expected to open and serve its first patients in July, hospital spokeswoman Lisa Wood said. Construction began in early 2020.

The expansion is intended to help the hospital care for Salem’s growing and aging population and reduce the amount of time patients who need to be admitted to the hospital must sometimes wait in the emergency department for a bed to free up. Salem Hospital sees more patients in its emergency room than any other hospital in Oregon or Washington.

The hospital has struggled with especially high numbers of hospital inpatients over the past year due to people delaying care during the pandemic and other factors.

The new emergency department plaza and entrance has redesigned signage and traffic lanes intended to make it easier and quicker for emergency services and private citizens to drop off people seeking care.

“The drive to an emergency room can be scary and filled with distractions. Having to hunt for the correct turn as you approach only adds to the stress, but the new entrance was designed to eliminate that stress whenever possible and to enhance the experience of support and care outside our doors, because every moment counts for those in crisis,” said Cheryl Wolfe, Salem Health CEO, in a news release.

The entrance to the emergency department drop-off is now on Capitol Street, which has reopened to through traffic, the hospital said in a news release. There’s also dedicated parking for the emergency department on the first floor of the hospital’s parking garage.

More information about parking is available on the hospital website.

-Rachel Alexander