PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center officials will slice the red ribbon and officially open the hospital’s expanded emergency department at noon Wednesday at 939 Caroline St.
They will be joined by the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce’s red-jacketed Ambassadors in the brief ceremony that will precede hospital commissioners’ 12:30 p.m. board meeting.
Monday’s ceremony will not include public tours of the emergency department due to patient privacy concerns.
The expanded 20-bed emergency department will include rooms designated for people having behavioral crises, a negative-air-pressure room to contain patients with communicable diseases and an outside-accessible shower room for hazardous material exposure.
“We are now fully set up to triage and room patients more efficiently,” said Lorraine Wall, OMC’s chief nursing officer, “allowing us to see patients with lower-level urgent-care needs more promptly.”
Meanwhile, OMC has had its status as a Level 3 trauma center renewed by the state Department of Health.
On the North Olympic Peninsula, Forks Community Hospital and Jefferson Healthcare Hospital hold Level 4 ratings.
The nearest Level 2 trauma centers are in Bellingham, Everett and Tacoma.
Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, is the state’s sole Level 1 center.