Wake Forest Baptist to change traffic pattern for emergency-department visits

By: Richard Craver | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: March 03, 2010

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center said today that it will begin using temporary traffic patterns Monday for all emergency department visits.
The changes are being made to accommodate the first stage of construction for the $19 million pediatric emergency department at Brenner Children's Hospital. Wake Forest Baptist plans to open the department by March 2011.
The center said that the traffic patterns for walk-in patients, ambulances, emergency vehicles and deliveries will be changed for up to eight weeks. The center said it will use signage to reflect the traffic changes.
Additional security and valet attendants will be available around the clock to assist, including at a manned information center.
The temporary traffic pattern still has vehicles turning off Cloverdale Avenue, beside the Shell service station, onto Grove Park Avenue. All critical-care vehicles will turn left on Beach Street in front of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and go to the loading dock driveway to access the temporary emergency department entrance on the back side of Ardmore Tower.
All walk-in traffic and convalescent transports will go to the lower level of the emergency department parking deck for entrance. All private vehicles pulling into this area will be valet parked, free of charge.
The center is asking that oncology patients at the cancer center park in Deck C on the purple level. The center is accessible from the parking deck via a pedestrian bridge.
"We have taken every precaution with additional signage and personnel to provide direction so that patients are able to access our emergency services," said James Bryant, the center's director of Emergency and Transport Services.
"This is only a temporary change in traffic patterns and we just ask for patience and understanding."