Emergency Medicine

The University of Kentucky A. B. Chandler Medical Center is a 476-bed facility, with a 40-bed Emergency Department serving central, southern and eastern Kentucky as a Level 1 Trauma and Pediatric Trauma Center. The Emergency Department volume is approximately 48,000 visits, of which 22% are pediatric. The acuity is high with 25% of the adult visits and 8% of the pediatric visits being admitted. As a tertiary care center, University of Kentucky Medical Center cares for a variety of complex and/or unusual cases, as well as being the regional transplant center, cancer center, pediatric referral center with an active pediatric ICU, neurology and neurosurgical referral center, and an active trauma unit. As a referral base for a large portion of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, approximately 15% of the Emergency Department patients are transfers from other facilities. Patients are also frequently flown directly from the scene of accidents (as well as the occasional medical “scene” run) by the local air ambulance services.

The Emergency Department is staffed by physicians, nurses and other ancillary professionals to provide a level of care, and caring, that are tailored to provide outstanding service to every patient. The Emergency Department currently has 40 hours of Emergency Medicine faculty physician coverage each day, and has access to all medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties to treat the wide variety of problems encountered daily.

The Emergency Department completed a large expansion project two years ago. We have enhanced communication in the department through a radio frequency communication system (Vocera) that links all the health care professionals to each other by a touch of a button. EM faculty and residents provide procedural sedation to many adult and pediatric patients in the ED. We have developed a dedicated pediatric unit to meet the needs of ever expanding pediatric patient volume. An attached Express Care Unit provides more timely care to the lower acuity patients who present.

We are extremely fortunate to be relocating in July of 2010 to the ground floor of the new hospital, a 1.1 million square foot facility that is currently under construction adjacent to our current facility. This new ED has a “linear” design to allow for expansion and contraction in ED volume as patient numbers change throughout the day. We are very proud to have a dedicated pediatric ED, The McKenna David Pediatric Emergency Center as a separate but adjacent part of the new ED. The ED has a total of 56 beds and is equipped with a large, well-equipped trauma unit as well. The new Emergency Department will be a “state of the art” facility designed to meet all of the advanced emergency care needs of the people of central, southern and eastern Kentucky. Tour the architectural rendering here!