Cedars-Sinai Begins $10-Million Project

Ground was broken Tuesday on a $10-million expansion project that will nearly double the size of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s emergency room and enable the hospital to accept more trauma patients.

Spokeswoman Paula Correia said the current emergency room was designed to handle 50 to 80 patients a day when it opened in 1976. She said it now must accept 150 to 200 a day.

“When we’re at over-capacity, we have to close the emergency room,” she said.

Correia explained that paramedics are in contact with hospitals in the county’s trauma network and call ahead to find out which facility can accept patients.

Capacity at Cedars-Sinai is reached “sometimes once or twice a week,” Correia said.

The expansion of the emergency room from 13,670 square feet to 26,500 square feet is expected to take about three months, she said. The new facility will have 34 regular beds instead of 25. But it also will have six beds in a trauma/critical care suite instead of the current two, Correia said.