After expanion, ER usage up but waiting time stabilized

Middlesex (CT) Hospital's new $31 million emergency department, which opened in March, has settled into a groove. The waiting room is usually empty and people are seeing doctors in a third of the time, even though the patient caseload has risen 4% since March—in what has been one of the busiest emergency centers in the state. Memories of a crowded waiting room and patients on gurneys in the hallway are fading. The largest renovation project in the history of the hospital increased the number of emergency beds from 26 to 44 and added new technology that has streamlined patient care.