By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Tucson Medical Center has completed a $27 million renovation of its Emergency Department, overhauling one of Arizona’s busiest ERs to add capacity, privacy and faster diagnosis.
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TMC, through its adult and pediatric emergency departments, serves more than 100,000 patients each year. The adult ED was originally built in 1990 for a much smaller patient volume. The renovation adds 40 new adult treatment areas, bringing the total to 72 adult beds and eliminating hallway beds.
The redesigned department uses a racetrack-style layout around a centralized nursing station to improve patient flow, staff visibility and handoffs from emergency medical services.
A CT scanner, X-ray and scanning rooms now sit directly within the department, allowing teams to image, diagnose and start treatment without leaving the ER.
“You’re talking about folks having the worst day of their lives, right? We need to do the best job we possibly can to fulfill that need,” said Bill Meyer, integration architect at TMC Health.
“We don’t have to leave the emergency department,” Meyer said. “Combined with technology in the room and at the nurses’ desks, we have the ability to increase the amount of quality care that we give our patients and decrease the time.”
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The project includes five large medical rooms for the most critically ill patients, giving larger care teams more space to work.
Doctors are also using telenursing capabilities and an AI dictation tool that lets them securely dictate notes and discharge paperwork through their phones — with patient consent — to cut time spent charting and add time at the bedside.
The renovation includes four specialized behavioral health rooms for patients experiencing a mental health crisis, with ligature-resistant features and private, secure settings.
“Our behavioral health rooms have the same technology we have in all of our other exam rooms, but those have the ability to safeguard,” Meyer said. “The televisions are safeguarded inside plastic, so there’s no opportunity to get to a cable… it has special restrooms and those types of things.”
The project was funded through bond financing, donors to the TMC Health Foundation, grant funding and a $6.3 million investment from Pima County through the American Rescue Plan Act. The county funding supported design, equipment, digital infrastructure, demolition and medical record integration.
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