The building’s done. The doctors have moved in. There’s a new
lobby and a new front desk. Now, it’s time for the patients to
come. But how does one use the new Outpatient Services Center at
Bradford Regional Medical Center?

BRMC officials are looking to make the new center user friendly
and convenient for everyone. The entrance to the Outpatient Service
Center is now considered the new main entrance.

The front desk – located in the entrance off North Bennett
Street – is staffed solely by volunteers during the week from 8
a.m. to 3 p.m. Stacy Williams, volunteer program coordinator, said
they are looking at extending those hours from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“We are in the process of recruiting volunteers,” she said.
“Find people willing to donate time for us.”

Williams added they put volunteers where they excel – not where
they need the people most. She said this helps with the turnover
rate.

During off hours, a phone is available for those looking for
direction. By dialing “0,” the visitor gets the operator –
stationed at the Interstate Parkway entrance.

“Feel free to pick up the phone,” Williams said.

The new lobby is open until 8 p.m. From that point until the
next morning, people need to use the Interstate Parkway entrance,
the entrance next to the emergency room.

Williams also said the front desk is not right when patients
come in, because there’s a gust of air when the doors open.

Those volunteers are available to help patients find where they
need to go and direct people to where the in-patients are
located.

According to Kimberly Maben, director of marketing and
communications, the volunteers are given a directory of patients
whose names they are allowed to release. HIPPA, the law which
governs patient confidentiality, is enforced.

The volunteers only have the information they are allowed to
give out, Williams said.

Those patients coming in for surgery need only veer right into
outpatient surgery.

“They check in with a volunteer and they are set,” Williams
said.

For the patients’ convenience, as well as the doctors’, imaging
services can be reached from the new lobby off North Bennett
Street. The department can be accessed by getting off the second
floor, turning right and going through the double doors.

“That’s one place those elevators take you to the east wing,”
Maben said, adding this benefits patients in the cancer and heart
centers.

Volunteers also help out at outpatient registration and
admitting, where the procedure is as easy as 1-2-3. Before, these
were two different areas. Now, they are combined into one area.

The patients who use this office include those coming for
diagnostic tests, including lab work and x-ray.

Patients can come in and pick a number. Once their number is
called, they can proceed to one of the four bays in use.

Pam Little, director of patient accounts, said the number of
bays staffed depends on the people available. And just because
someone is sitting in a bay and doesn’t call a number, it doesn’t
mean that person is not working. She could also be admitting
someone or taking care of paperwork, Minnie Burns, patient access
supervisor, said.

“They can’t document anything on the floor until they are in the
system,” she said.

These bays also allow patients more privacy when
registering.

“They are more one on one,” Little said.

This area is open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday
and 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday.

Those who come in during off hours should go in the emergency
room entrance, then call the operator and tell the operator what
they are there for. Those with emergency situations can continue to
go directly to the ER.

People who come to register should always have their insurance
card with them. This will enable the staff to correctly identify
the person and make sure the insurance is billed correctly.

Much like giving a credit card to a store for each purchase,
every patient has to have their insurance card, Burns said.

There’s also more privacy in the area where they draw the blood,
three “drawing bays,” and do urine tests.

Now, there’s a part of the wall with a sliding door. Now, people
can just put their urine samples in the passageway and not walk
around with the sample.

Since there are many areas a person can go, patients who come
from a doctor’s office should go wherever that office told them to
go. They also need to remember to bring in the order the office
gave them.

Bills still have to be paid at the office on Boylston
Street.

Maben also said they are working on making maps of the areas so
visitors and patients won’t get lost.

In the end, officials hope patients move through as quickly and
painlessly as possible.

“Feel like they are being taken care of,” Little said.

With the addition of the Outpatient Services Center, Bradford
Regional Medical Center has three sets of elevators that take
visitors to three separate areas of the facility.

Here’s a breakdown on where each elevator goes.

The elevators off the Interstate Parkway lobby take people to
Bradford Recovery Systems, the Wound Clinic, occupational health
and MICA, the Mentally Ill Chemically Addicted unit.

The elevators in the East Wing, where the old outpatient surgery
area was, takes visitors to patient rooms.

The elevators in the Outpatient Services Center go:

– second floor – Cancer Care Center and the Heart Center;

– third floor – neurosciences, sleep lab and Dr. Robert Tahara’s
office

– fourth floor – pediatrics