Extended Observation Unit opens at Park Ridge Hospital

Park Ridge Hospital continues to expand and improve its services to the community with the opening of an Emergency Department Extended Observation Unit. The short-stay, six-bed telemetry Observation Unit is adjacent to the Emergency Department and will provide close monitoring of patients for up to 23 hours. The unit began seeing patients April 1.

The Unit will provide care to patients that extend beyond the limits of the Emergency Department, but do not require full inpatient, acute or critical care. For example, patients with chest pain, kidney stones, or asthma can be admitted to the Extended Observation Unit and closely monitored by dedicated medical providers.

The Extended Observation Unit will increase the Park Ridge Hospital Emergency Department bed space by 25 percent and will be open-24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. The increased capacity will help better serve the west-side of Monroe County, according to Robert Biernbaum, D.O., interim medical director of the Park Ridge Hospital Emergency Department.

"This new Extended Observation Unit is another step in our effort to be the premier health care provider in western Monroe County," Dr. Biernbaum explained. "This unit now brings us to a full 28-bed Emergency Department, which will help us better serve the nearly 36,000 patients we see every year."

Unity Health System is a 681-bed health care network serving the city of Rochester and western Monroe County. Services include acute care, psychiatry and behavioral health, physical medicine and rehabilitation, primary care and family medicine, women's health, retirement communities, orthopaedics, continuing care, housing, laboratory, and child care services.