Sampson Regional Medical Center has done an amazing job of improving its emergency department, a two-year renovation project with remarkable results that just keep coming. From wait times to patient flow, increased privacy to stronger safety measures, the hospital has made great strides that should translate to tremendous pride for our community

And it’s been done with as little disruption to patient flow and patient care as could possibly be done, the two things hospital administrators worked tenaciously to avoid.

It wasn’t without hiccups or criticism, though, both which can be expected with the mammoth undertaking Sampson Regional took on in an effort to do the very things residents wanted to see from their community hospital.

The hiccups were sure to happen, given that construction was ongoing amid the hustle and bustle of an emergency room that didn’t stop offering services through the renovations. The criticism was born from the hiccups, an expected occurrence given the mix between sick individuals in need of treatment, longer wait times made necessary because of the real-time improvements being made and an expected impatient brought on by the two.

But, in truth, hospital staff have done an amazing job of providing premium care throughout the renovations, no easy feat given the realities one sees in any emergency department coupled with the realities of construction, even on its best day.

Everyone, no matter the city, loves to criticize the medical care in a community, most particularly that which occurs in emergency rooms. It is the nature of the beast. No one who is hurt or sick wants to wait to be seen, not even a few minutes, let alone a half hour to an hour. The wait time is exacerbated and already frayed nerves are worn thin. It is human nature working at its optimum level.

But once the emergency has subsided and the illness has waned, a closer look at what actually happened in the emergency department becomes clearer and the criticism dies down, replaced by an appreciation for the service and the painstaking way in which medical teams worked to make the ER visit the best it can possibly be.

We’ve seen that time and again at Sampson Regional, even during the tumultuous renovation period that has now passed As work progressed, and construction continued, turn-around times were certainly impacted, but even that remained below the national average of 280 minutes, again a feat of enormous proportions considering all that was going on during the renovation.

It wasn’t perfect during the construction, but it was far above average given the circumstances.

We’ve said it time and again from these pages, and we believe it’s worth saying again: our community hospital deserves our praise for always going above and beyond the call of duty to assist patients, be as efficient as possible and provide the quality care every patient should expect.

We are fortunate in Sampson County to have the quality medical care and facilities that we have, something many towns our size simply cannot boast of having. What’s more, we have medical teams that aren’t willing to remain at status quo, opting instead to grow within the financial means the hospital has, improving care at every turn.

The renovation project was an enormous task, both from a construction standpoint and a budgetary one. What we have now stands head and shoulders above what we had just two years before, and we content that it was still very good.

Today, to use the hospital’s own branding, what our community can be proud of is a Sampson Regional emergency department that is, without question, BiggER, BettER and FastER!