The new emergency room at the Halifax Infirmary site will officially open its doors to patients today at 8 a.m.
But overnight, the QEII Health Sciences Centre was running two ERs as they moved patients from the old to new facility.
The Charles V. Keating Emergency and Trauma Centre will be the largest of its kind in Atlantic Canada, hosting individual rooms for each patient needing a bed instead of shared rooms only separated by curtains, according to hospital staff.
New features include better infectious disease control, a mental health suite, more ambulance bays, heightened security, and X-ray and diagnostic equipment.
Sam Campbell and Sandra Janes, both co-leaders of the emergency department, praised the new facility yesterday as safer and more a more efficient space. Campbell also said he is anticipating wait times to decrease.
The transition was scheduled for overnight yesterday because it is typically the least busy day of the week for patients.
Campbell and Janes noted other emergency rooms around the Halifax Regional Municipality are helping out with the transition. The Dartmouth General location brought in more staff and the Cobequid Emergency Clinic in Sackville stayed open overnight instead of closing at 10 p.m.
