“Our community has truly embraced the new Emergency Department,” said CEO Kelly Mather. “Use of the ED has grown by 10 percent in the past year. We’re now averaging more than 10,000 patient visits annually and handling 80 percent of the emergency visits in the Sonoma Valley. Equally important, our ED ranks among the top 25 percent of hospitals nationally in terms of patient satisfaction, thanks to the efforts of our physicians and staff. We’re fortunate to have it all here, a great facility and a wonderful staff.”

The new Emergency Department, which opened its doors on February 12 last year, is formally named the Marcia and Gary Nelson Family Emergency Care Center in honor of its lead donor. It occupies the first floor of the new 12,243 square foot wing, with the Surgery Center occupying the second floor. The new Surgery Center is also seeing an increase in surgeries, including specialized surgeries in such areas as orthopedics, pain management, and ophthalmology.

“We are blessed to have this wonderful health care facility in our community, especially one with a modern and responsive Emergency Department to serve all of us when we most need it,” said Gary Nelson. “It took a true community effort to make it a reality, and we should all be proud of our accomplishment.”

The 6,586 sq ft Emergency Department is three times larger than the previous facility, and is one of the most modern in the North Bay, with seven private patient treatment areas, each with one bed, plus an area with two beds for high-acuity patients. It also features a spacious and comfortable waiting room, triage room, admitting area, consultation room and a play area for children.

The second floor houses the expanded Surgery Center which has three state-of-the-art operating rooms, each with ample space to accommodate more complex cases and larger surgical teams.

The opening of the new wing completed the first stage in modernizing the hospital, which began in 2008 with passage a $35 million general obligation bond approved by Sonoma voters to enable the Hospital to meet California seismic standards and cover the cost of new construction and equipment. It was subsequently determined that the Hospital’s Emergency and Surgery departments could not be upgraded, and a new wing was needed. To accomplish this, the Hospital launched a capital campaign that successfully raised an additional $11 million prior to the new wing opening.

The Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation continues to raise funds to complete the final stages of modernizing the Hospital.