AHN Neighborhood Hospital opening in Brentwood

At a time when emergency rooms are strained and hospital beds could become scarce, the Allegheny Health Network Brentwood Neighborhood Hospital is a welcome addition to the South Hills.

The hospital, which is a partnership between AHN and Emerus (a nationwide developer and operator of neighborhood hospitals), opens 9 a.m. Monday. It joins recent AHN Neighborhood Hospital openings in Hempfield and McCandless.

“We’re geared up for everything, our staff will be there first thing in the morning and we’re ready to go, be it patients in vehicles or via EMS services,” said Cindy Dorundo, regional CEO of the AHN Neighborhood Hospitals.

And, the timing couldn’t be better — though it’s really serendipity that the hospital is opening during a global pandemic. Dorundo said that staff for the Brentwood location was hired in January and that AHN was expecting its occupancy survey anytime in February or March.

Covid-19 testing will be available at the location — Dorundo said that any patient that presents with flu-like symptoms or has a cough, fever and any type of shortness of breath will also be tested for the flu because it’s still going around. “We will do various testing based on the physician’s assessment,” she said.

The hospital, located at the corner of Saw Mill Run Boulevard (Route 51) and Greenlee Road, features CT and X-ray rooms, an onsite lab and a 10-bed inpatient unit in addition to the emergency room. The inpatient rooms are private and will be used for situations like monitoring, surgical rule-out cases, diabetic patients, those with pneumonia who need IV antibiotics and other higher-level care needs, according to Dorundo.

Dorundo also said that local primary care physicians have been notified of the hospital’s opening, and those PCPs can allow patients to bypass the emergency department and do direct admissions, so long as they’ve seen the patient and consulted with the onsite hospitalist.