Day Kimball Healthcare Marks Completion of New Townsend Emergency Medical Center at Day Kimball Hospital

L to R: DKH President and CEO Robert E. Smanik and Marjolaine and Steven Townsend unveil a commemorative plaque in the Townsend Emergency Medical Center at Day Kimball Hospital that honors the couple’s vision and leadership gift to the Care in a Heartbeat capital campaign. 

Day Kimball Healthcare (DKH) today marked the completion of the new Townsend Emergency Medical Center at Day Kimball Hospital with a dedication event held at the hospital. Donors to the “Care in a Heartbeat” capital campaign that helped to make construction of the new emergency center possible gathered with DKH administrators, staff, capital campaign fundraising committee members, local legislators and many others who played a part in making the new facility a reality to celebrate its completion and to recognize the tremendous community support that made it possible.

The dedication was capped off with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque recognizing the campaign’s lead donors, Steven and Marjolaine Townsend of Brooklyn, Conn., who gave $500,000 to support the project.

“Today marks the culmination of years of hard work, dedication and vision on the part of our Board of Directors, our staff, and our construction partners, but most of all our capital campaign steering committee members and our donors large and small from across the community who share our commitment to ensuring high quality health care in Northeast Connecticut,” said Robert E. Smanik, FACHE, president and CEO, Day Kimball Healthcare.

View of the entrance to the new Townsend Emergency Medical Center. Photo credit: Olson Photographic and Downes Construction Company.

The Care in a Heartbeat campaign publicly launched in late 2011 and raised more than three million dollars in just ten months to help build the state-of-the-art Townsend Emergency Medical Center.

According to Pamela Watts, Director of Development for DKH, “Donations came from each of the 13 towns that make up Northeast Connecticut and support also came from all the other New England states, as well as Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Missouri and Virginia. People gave what they could and gifts ranged from $2 to $500,000. We can’t say ‘thank you’ enough times to express our appreciation for the generosity of all those who helped to make this crucial project a reality.”

Joseph Adiletta, chairman, DKH Board of Directors, Peter Deary, co-chair of the Care in a Heartbeat Capital Campaign Steering Committee, Steven and Marjolaine Townsend, the campaign’s lead donors, and Dr. Steven Wexler, medical director of the Emergency Department at Day Kimball Hospital also addressed the crowd, conveying the many reasons why this project was so important. All also reiterated the thankfulness and pride they have in the Northeast Connecticut community for the way community members continue to support initiatives that are central to the health and wellness of the region.

The previous emergency department facility was constructed in 1970 and renovated in 1990. It was designed to serve 18,000 patients per year; today there are over 30,000 emergency care visits to Day Kimball Hospital annually. The new and improved ED has been designed to better meet the growing needs of the community and the demands of a modern health care facility including enhanced safety, privacy and efficiency for optimal patient care and experience.

Major improvements include: 

• 24 all-private treatment rooms (double the number of rooms in the old emergency department), including dedicated and discreet behavioral health treatment rooms
• Addition of a state-of-the-art two-bed resuscitation room, where the most critical patients receive care
• Upgrades to cardiac monitoring equipment and addition of specialized bariatric equipment
• A decontamination room to appropriately manage biological or chemical decontamination activities
• New patient reception and waiting areas, private triage room, and private consultation room
• New entrance with covered drop-off area and separate, covered ambulance entrance that is equipped to easily convert to a hazardous decontamination zone or to receive mass casualties
• Significant improvements to the existing helipad to improve safety.
• See a project history and photos of the completed facility at daykimball.org/care.