CONCORD — Emerson Health is aiming to raise $60 million for construction of a new emergency department and changes for its Concord, Mass., main campus—through the largest fundraising campaign in its history.
The emergency department construction will double the size of the emergency department, improve its entrance and parking and provide more private rooms. Other updates will also be made to the campus where Emerson Hospital is located, both, in the first phase of the project, and, in future phases.
“This fundraising campaign far exceeds the independent, nonprofit health system’s second-largest campaign of $12 million,” said Karl Kussin, vice president of development and chief philanthropy officer. “The reason for the fundraising campaign is to improve patient care and support the growing needs of the region, but to not add expenses to the hospital’s budget sheet.”
Emerson Health has already raised more than $30 million in commitments toward its fundraising target of $60 million. Most of the amount raised will be used for the new emergency department, the first phase of the project. “The goal is for the new emergency department to open by 2030,” Kussin said.
Changes to Emergency Department and Hospital Campus
“This is a project everyone can wrap their arms around,” said Emerson Health President and CEO Christine Schuster, RN, MBA. “Why? I don’t know a person who hasn’t used an emergency department in their lifetime for themselves, their family, their friends. If you have children, you live here.”
Emerson Hospital is managing several trends that are placing more demand on its health care services, including a growing and aging population in Middlesex County, a mental and behavioral health crisis for adults and children and the closure of Nashoba Valley Medical Center.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Emerson Hospital has experienced a steady rise in emergency visits, including a nearly 10% increase in patients between fiscal year 2024 and fiscal year 2025, according to hospital data.
Each year, Emerson Health staff provide care for more than 35,000 emergency department visits, 21,000 surgical procedures, 15,000 chemotherapy/infusions and 1,400 births.
The official name of the project is “Transforming Health.”
The new emergency department will:
- Double in size to 18,000 square feet
- Have more single inpatient rooms for patient comfort and efficiency so that patients do not have to be moved and the equipment comes to them (The total number of beds will remain the same).
- Expand access to emergency behavioral health services with 10 dedicated rooms for adult and pediatric care, an increase from the two rooms currently available that are also used for non-behavioral health patients.
- Separate patient and ambulance entrances
- Improved patient parking and access for the emergency department
To make way for the new construction, two structures will be taken down, a two-story building and an older white house. The new building will connect with existing buildings.
Amanda Maillet, MSN, MHA, BSN, RN, associate chief nursing officer, Emergency and Ambulatory Services, said the new features of the emergency room will help patients.
“The changes will make it easier for patients who drive themselves to the hospital with chest pain because they will not find themselves walking up a hill after parking to get to the emergency department,” Maillet said. “Also, there will be more safe behavioral health rooms to address the current situation of patients sometimes having to be cared for on beds in hallways when no safe rooms are available.”
Schuster said Emerson Hospital saw an increase in the need for emergency room behavioral health services during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were more isolated from school, family and friends.
“We definitely saw this in very young children, as young as three, right straight through college-age kids,” Schuster said. “We saw a lot of depression, a lot of anxiety, a lot of suicidal ideations, a lot of cutting.”
“That need has not gone away,” Schuster said, adding predictions are the effect will continue for years.
After receiving emergency care for behavioral health, adult patients can be admitted to Emerson’s inpatient behavior health unit. However, pediatric patients must be transferred to other facilities for longer-term care.
“If there are no beds for pediatric patients, they have to remain in the emergency room, sometimes for days or weeks,” Maillet said. “Other changes to the emergency room include efficiencies in the layout to help the flow of patient care and areas with recliners for treatment of patients with less serious injuries.”
“We wanted to have a better experience for both our providers in how we deliver care and for our patients, most importantly,” Schuster said. “The quality of the care is outstanding here and we want to bring the facility up to that level as well.”
