Good Samaritan Celebrates Opening of New ER

Since taking over as Good Samaritan Medical Center's Chairman of Emergency Medicine in 2006, Richard Herman, MD, has dreamed of a new, state of the art facility where privacy was the norm, technology was up-to-date, and patients felt comfortable.

It was a dream he had since day one, and one that many had before him.

"When I came to Good Sam five years ago, there was a cabinet in my office filled with past blue-prints and designs for a new emergency department. It’s a project that this hospital and medical staff has been trying to get off the ground for a long time. For one reason or another the funding has not been available."

When Caritas Christi, of which Good Samaritan was a part, merged with Steward Health Care System last year, though, the new addition suddenly seemed possible.

And, this Wednesday, the new state-of-the-art $30-million facility will open at the hospital located on North Pearl Street in Brockton, not far from the Stoughton-Brockton line.

The new ER will include 42 private rooms, a two bay trauma room, a cardiac care room, seven bed observation unit, a CT scanner and X-ray suite, a dedicated space for behavioral health, pediatric and gynecological patients, an isolation room for patients with infectious diseases, a decontamination unit and a private workroom for EMS providers.

It will replace Good Samaritan's former emergency room which opened in 1968. According to a statement released by the hospital, the expected annual capacity for visits in 1968 was 25,000. Currently Good Samaritan's ER is serving 54,000 visits per year. The new facility will accommodate approximately 60,000 yearly visits.

For Herman, though, his main objective is to keep patients comfortable.

"The people and the equipment have been there," he said.

"What has not been there is the privacy and attention to comfort and confidentiality. That was just really challenging in an emergency department where structures are separated by curtains and treatment areas were small. The access for visitors and family members was limited. If the patient is not comfortable you can’t possibly help them get better faster."

Herman said he and other health care professionals put together a "wish list" and worked with architects on a weekly basis, and sometimes a daily basis, for over a year. While he said the hospital workers didn't get 100 percent of what they wanted, they came close.

"The architects did a phenomenal job of drawing a modern Emergency Department," he said. "Our clinical staff and others have a big hand in the plans."

For Herman, the new center is something that that Brockton-area residents deserve.

While he is pleased the new emergency department, Herman says he is more proud of the staff he works with.

"The staff at the hospital is awesome," he said. "We have a totally dedicated medical staff. It still amazes me and humbles me every day.

"It’s a very rewarding kind of job. It’s the kind of job that you go to every day and at the end of the day say ‘well, today I was not bored.’"