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Rebecca Voelker

JAMA. 1999;282:719-720.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Chicago—In its new incarnation, the emergency department of Northwestern Memorial Hospital has tripled in size. But Steve Adams, MD, the department's interim medical director, has another way to describe the expansion. He gestures toward the east side of the department, just a few blocks from Lake Michigan. "This is the lake side," he says. "And that," he notes, pointing toward the west, "is the Pacific side."

Beyond the nursing station in Northwestern Memorial Hospital's emergency department, the three-walled patient care bays are in direct view of physicians and other staff. (Photo credit: Maria Corley)

Jonathan Handler, MD, left, and Roland Petri, MD, monitor computer screens in Northwestern's emergency department that can provide up-to-the-minute patient information and digital medical images. (Photo credit: Maria Corley)

Well, almost. At 24,000 square feet, it is one of the largest hospital emergency departments in the Chicago area. But it also is a . . . [Full Text of this Article]