MONTREAL — Quebec Health and Social Services Minister Réjean Hébert was on hand for the official opening of the Jewish General Hospital’s (JGH) new state-of-the-art emergency department, the largest in Quebec.

The new ER, which goes into operation Feb. 16, is the first phase of the Pavilion K construction project, whose second and third phases are well underway.

JGH executive director Lawrence Rosenberg said the new ER will be more efficient in handling the growing number of people coming to the department.

“The new ER is not only a new building, but a new way of doing things,” Hébert said.

An average of 230 people visit the hospital’s ER every day.

The 82,000-square-foot facility has been designed to move patients more quickly through and out of the department.

“We are very excited about the way patients will be treated here,” said JGH president Rick Dubrovsky, “with greater speed, safety, efficiency and respect for their privacy and their emotional well-being.”

There is no waiting room. Instead there are three units to which patients will be immediately sent depending on the severity of their condition.

Other features are five resuscitation rooms, 52 individual cubicles for stretchers, six lockable rooms for psychiatric patients, 20 reclining chairs for those receiving intravenous drugs and a section specifically for the elderly.

There are also separate corridors for visitors and health-care staff.

Pavilion K, which is being built at the northwest corner of the hospital, will also house intensive care and coronary care units, operating rooms and the neonatal intensive care unit, as well as a day hospital.

The new ER department, announced in November 2010, cost over $121 million, with about $95 million contributed by the government and the rest by the Jewish General Hospital Foundation.

Pavilion K will be linked to the main building by an atrium at the ground level, and footbridges at the upper levels.