St. John’s new Emergency Trauma Center opened in January 2005. The facility offers direct and immediate access for critical patients and a patient-friendly atmosphere for those who are already in a stressful situation.

The three floors above the ground floor of the ETC house radiology services, the surgical intensive care unit, and the cardiac care unit, which connect to corresponding patient floors in the hospital’s West Pavilion. The building also has four helicopter pads on the roof with direct elevator access to six critical care rooms.

These critical-care rooms are fully equipped with power booms, surgical lights and trauma carts on each side of the room so the nurse can turn around and retrieve what they need quickly. St. John’s has also added another care team of trauma professionals since the new facility opened resulting in four care teams, in addition to the acute care center.

Seven covered bays on the west side of the new facility allow multiple ambulances to unload patients at an entrance isolated from pedestrian and walk-in traffic. The ambulance bays also connect to the hospital’s West Pavilion for non-emergent ambulance unloads. The design of the ambulance bays creates better traffic flow for more ambulances, without disrupting or blocking one another.