DAVENPORT, Iowa — On Friday Sept. 30, Genesis Health System officially announced plans to consolidate all Davenport emergency services onto one campus. The plan entails closing the Genesis West Campus emergency department located at 1401 W. Central Park Avenue, effective Dec. 6 at 8 p.m.
The rest of the West campus will remain open.
In April, Genesis revealed a full-scale plan to optimize Scott County emergency services to expand capacity and provide better care to patients. The closing of the West campus emergency department will divert patients to the expanded Genesis Davenport East campus emergency department, and also create a new emergency department at the Genesis Bettendorf Healthplex.
Chief Clinical Officer and Chief Medical Officer of Genesis Health System, Dr. Kurt Andersen spoke with WQAD on Friday, saying "We looked at what's the best care for the community. Having two emergency rooms less than two miles apart, and one that has a full capability, clinically, and one that doesn't have that full capability because of just the resources available. It didn't make sense, it wasn't the right thing for the community."
The East campus expansion plans include additional beds, some of which will be designated for behavioral health and substance abuse patients in crisis. The East campus already provides most of the acute care for the city of Davenport.
President and CEO of Genesis Health System, Doug Cropper explained the reason behind the consolidation in a Friday news release, saying, “It is important all those across our communities realize that most of the acute care and subspecialty services in Davenport -- including trauma care, surgery, cardiology, neurology, orthopedics and intensive care -- are now located on the East Campus,” Cropper said. “These services are important to providing a high level of emergency care. It is critical that we centralize these services to continue providing a high level of emergency care.”
In addition to creating a larger high-level intervention emergency department through the consolidation, Andersen says that the medical workforce shortage that has affected Genesis will be mitigated, saying "There is a workforce component to it. You have to make sure you have enough doctors to care for the patients and trying to duplicate that at two sites that close to each other really didn't make sense."
Staff currently working at the West campus will transfer to the East campus or to the new Bettendorf emergency department.
An analysis determined that the East campus can handle the emergency needs of the entire city of Davenport. The consolidation allows Genesis to centralize emergency resources and staff expertise, including the East campus heart institute. The East campus emergency department was named Iowa's Level III Trauma Facility of the Year by the Iowa Department of Public Health.
With construction still ongoing, Andersen says that the East campus is, "definitely going to be ready by December 9th."
A previous idea to convert the West campus emergency space into a convenient care facility is no longer happening. The two existing convenient care locations in west Davenport at 1520 W. 53rd St. and 3200 W. Kimberly Road have been deemed capable of accommodating the area.
The West campus will continue to offer health care services, including inpatient behavioral health and inpatient physical medicine and rehabilitation, the Genesis Cancer Center, and outpatient services.
"In the end, you know, to make sure that we meet the community need in the safest and highest quality way possible, we need to consolidate services into our East Campus, where we have that capability and capacity," Andersen said.
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