St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Announces ExpressCare:
A New Emergency Room Service designed to
reduce wait times for patients
Anyone who's been to an emergency room knows how crowded it can be, and how long the wait can seem, especially for patients with non-critical ailments. St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, dedicated to improving processes that affect patient care and patient satisfaction, has taken steps to improve the wait times in the Emergency Department at Good Samaritan Regional Health Center
The Emergency Department on our Mt. Vernon campus serves around 25,000 visitors per year, with injuries ranging from life-threatening traumas, strokes and heart attacks to sprains, falls and cases of the flu. A new service in the Emergency Department at Good Samaritan is designed to put patients with less serious illnesses or injuries on the expressway back to health. This service, called ExpressCare, allows those patients to more quickly receive the care they need, while also enabling the emergency staff to properly concentrate on patients who are acutely ill or have traumatic injuries. In addition to offering more timely treatment for non-critical patients, the ExpressCare program also keeps wait times down for patients with more serious health problems.
“ExpressCare is not only a service, it’s a mind-set”, says Brian Hughes, MD, emergency medicine physician at Good Samaritan Regional Health Center. “Our philosophy is that it’s better for everyone when people with life’s non-critical emergencies are seen quickly and efficiently.”
Although the service allows non-critical patients to be seen more quickly, there is no compromise in quality of care. The providers staffing ExpressCare have extensive training and experience in emergency medicine. Patients will also be pleased to know that our same nursing staff will work with them in ExpressCare – the same friendly faces they have seen in the past!
A team of healthcare providers identify and treat Express Care patients as soon as they enter the department. When a patient first arrives, a nurse in the reception area determines whether or not he or she is a candidate for ExpressCare based on specific criteria. Ailments that make a patient a good candidate for ExpressCare include insect bites, sprains, strains, ear aches, sore throats, cuts, respiratory infections, etc. Nurses begin treatment immediately, including ordering appropriate X-rays, lab tests, or pain medications. Health care providers then have the necessary information at their fingertips to make a prompt and accurate diagnosis.
The hours of operation for ExpressCare are 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. seven days a week in the Emergency Department at Good Samaritan Regional Health Center. Although trips to the emergency room are usually unexpected, patients can be assured that at St. Mary’s Good Samaritan, we’ll be here when they need us – whatever their emergency is!