Dr. Charles Barbera made a simple request.
Standing underneath a white tent erected on the lawn outside Reading Hospital’s emergency department Wednesday morning, the hospital’s CEO and president asked anyone in the crowd to raise their hand if they thought the department had enough space.
His question was met with laughter, and not a single raised hand.
Barbera, who started his tenure at Reading in the emergency department, wasn’t surprised. He knows, as pretty much anyone who’s visited the department knows, the space is tight. Too tight.
Soon, that won’t be the case.
Barbera spoke at a groundbreaking ceremony for an extensive expansion of the emergency department.
“Today marks an exciting new opportunity for Reading Hospital and emergency care in this community,” he said, calling the ceremony a momentous occasion.
Dr. Charles Barbera, president and CEO of Reading Hospital, speaks Wednesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for a project that will expand Reading Hospital’s emergency department. (DAVID MEKEEL – READING EAGLE)
The project, which is expected to begin construction in the spring and last 14 to 18 months, will add 20,000 square feet to the department. The bulk of that will be used to create a large waiting room and reception area as well as a new pharmacy and phlebotomy center.
The project is being funded through a transformational gift from the Post family and will include a rebranding of the department to the John and Maryanne Post Center for Emergency Care.
An exact figure for the donation was not provided, but it is part of a $70 million fundraising campaign that kicked off in September. The campaign is also looking to raise money for upgrades to Reading’s intensive care, neonatal intensive care and cancer units.
The emergency department expansion will allow the hospital to grow with the increasing need in the community, said Dr. Brian Lahmann, chair of the department of emergency medicine.
Lahmann said the current space can’t accommodate the sheer volume of emergency patients the hospital sees each day.
He said the department saw 369 patients Tuesday. During the peak afternoon and early-evening periods, it averaged 20 patients per hour.
“If you’ve been in our ER, you know it gets really busy and really congested,” he said.
Dr. Brian Lahmann, chair of the department of emergency medicine at Reading Hospital, says a project to expand the emergency department will help staff accommodate the volume of patients seen there. (DAVID MEKEEL – READING EAGLE)
Those patients coming to the emergency department are likely facing one of the most difficult days of their life, Lahmann said. And they need all the support they can get.
“That’s why we’re here,” he said. “To take care of our patients and take care of our community.”
The space limitations sometimes make that a challenge, Lahmann said. For example, if a child comes in needing care, often only one parent can accompany them.
“That’s not who we are or what we’re about,” he said, adding that the expansion will help to address those hurdles. “It is really investing in our people, our space and our resources.”
Kate Thornton, president of the Reading Hospital Foundation, which is leading the funding campaign, spoke about the experience of patients arriving at the emergency department.
She said they’re often scared and sometimes alone and unsure of what to do. The expansion will allow for hospital staff to properly help them.
“We will be able to meet the needs of every single patient that walks through those doors,” she said.
Thornton thanked the Post family for its generosity, pointing out that it’s by no means the first time the family has supported local families.
The Posts, the family behind Post Precision Castings in Strausstown, have long been benefactors for Catholic education as well as substance abuse recovery through financial support for the Caron Treatment Centers.
“Now, they’re bringing that same care for families to the Reading Hospital emergency department,” Thornton said.
John Post Jr. spoke on behalf of his family.
He said his parents, John, who passed away in June, and Maryann have long known of the hospital’s important role in the community.
Ever since the family arrived in Reading in the 1930s, he said, the hospital has supported the vitality of the manufacturing sector in which the family thrived.
And while much of the manufacturing has disappeared, the hospital has not.
“Reading Hospital has endured the great test of time,” he said.
John Post Jr. shares a few words about his family’s decision to donate to help fund an expansion of the Reading Hospital emergency department during a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the project. (DAVID MEKEEL – READING EAGLE)
Post spoke of his mother’s fondness for the hospital, where she has been involved with volunteer programs since the 1990s.
As a child, Post recalled, he and his sister were called into service as well, pushing the candy striper cart up and down the hospital’s halls over summer breaks.
Post said he met so many amazing people during that time, people who have left a lasting impact on him.
“It was an experience I will never forget,” he said.
Post said his family has watched Reading Hospital evolve from a small, community facility into a major regional medical center. And after their experience during the late days of his father’s life, they realized just how important it is that the hospital be allowed to continue to grow.
Post said the staff never hesitated to take an extra step for his father, to take extra time to make sure the family had all the information and support it needed.
Now the family is trying to repay that.
“In large part, this is a deep expression of gratitude,” he said. “It is our way of saying thank you for the compassion and altruism that are displayed here every day.”
Michael Stern, president and CEO of Tower Health, said the Posts’ gift will allow Reading Hospital to continue those efforts.
The emergency department is already the busiest in Pennsylvania, he said, and is likely to only get busier over the next decade.
“We need to make sure Reading Hospital is ready to meet those needs for years to come,” he said, adding that the Posts’ gift will go a long way to making that happen. “The next chapter of Reading Hospital starts today.”