Efforts toward closing the funding gap for a major upgrade of the Emergency Department at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital are nearly complete. Hospital Foundation Executive Director Kimberly Parker says their community donation campaign has now raised one-point-four million of the two-million dollars needed. The total cost of what’s described as a “transformation” is eleven-point-eight-million dollars…

Parker says the current Emergency Department was built to handle about 15-thousand patient visits a year, about 20 to 25 years ago. And that number has gradually risen to over 35-thousand. She says this project will provide vital improvements to create a more expedient experience…

Parker says another notable feature is more patient beds, along with what’s called a “rapid treatment” unit. She expects the rest of the money to be raised soon, with the hope that the project can begin by late spring or early summer.