EMERGENCY

Welcome to our Emergency Department

The Emergency Department at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial is only a heartbeat away! The close proximity of high-tech quality care is comforting for you and those you know; 24 hours a day. The emergency room encompasses 16,000 square feet with 31 exam rooms, of which 4 beds can be utilized as holding beds making a functional facility for the more than 40,000 patients served in our ER each year. Additionally, the facility also features a spacious waiting room.

UNDERSTANDING THE ER

In an emergency situation, time is a crucial factor in saving lives. Modern technology allows ER physicians to have vital information at their fingertips in an instant. In a cardiac crisis, a prior EKG study gives the physician a clear picture of what is currently happening with the heart. The Emergency Room is home to cutting-edge monitoring devices that provide current and past read-outs of a patient’s heart condition in an instant.

Our Emergency Department is equipped with a high tech cardiology information system called the MUSE. This system allows the physician to view previous EKG’s with comparison studies and offer a more comprehensive analysis. Additionally, these monitors eliminate the need for portable EKG machines, thereby saving precious time. The ER put out a “911 Call” campaign to the community to have free EKG’s recorded at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial. This EKG could one day save your life – tomorrow or five years from now.

Florida Hospital Fish Memorial understands the needs of women and children. On an “emergency basis,” we have a special exam room for OB/GYN patients, and a pediatric exam room. These house the equipment necessary for special examinations, but also place the patient’s comfort and sense of security at the forefront.

When emergency cases necessitate a transfer, the ER team at Florida Hospital Fish Memorial provides valuable immediate care, and prepares patients for transport. A key factor in quality emergency care for a community hospital is knowing when to transfer a patient and get them into the care of a specialist. All of the physicians who work in the emergency room are Board Certified in Emergency Medicine. This additional training and experience enables doctors to give the highest level of immediate care and also know when it is in the patient’s best interest to coordinate a transfer. All of our Registered Nurses have been certified in Adult Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) & Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), which is higher than the standard certifications required to work in an emergency room. When it comes to taking action in the face of a crisis, Florida Hospital Fish Memorial is committed to excellence in emergency care.

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ER WAIT TIMES

When patients are brought to our Emergency Department, they are usually seen in the order of the seriousness of their injury or illness – not on a first-come, first served basis. This means that during the busy times, patients who come in after you may be seen first due to the nature of their illness or injury. The national average waiting time for an emergency department is three hours. We’ll do our best to make sure it doesn’t take that long, but it may if you arrive at a particularly busy time or if we have a large number of seriously ill or injured patients.

We hope you understand that when it’s your turn, we’ll take good care of you, too.

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THE “TRIAGE” PROCESS

When you first arrive, you will be “triaged” by an emergency room registered nurse. The “triage” process is an assessment of your medical condition.

During triage, your vital signs will be taken and you will be asked why you came to the Emergency Department. Please be sure to tell the triage nurse if you think you might be pregnant, what medications you are currently taking, any allergies to medications that you may have, and discuss your tetanus immunization history. This information, combined with the conditions of other patients, will help Emergency Department caregivers determine how quickly you need to be seen by the emergency physician. This is where you will be assessed as either a “major” or “minor” illness or injury.

During your visit you may find that you are asked the same questions by several different staff members. We want to make sure we have received all the pertinent information to best facilitate your care. Often when people are ill or not feeling well, they may forget important medical details. The questioning is done to insure that we get all of your important medical history to better meet your medical needs.

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EMERGENCY CARE CLASSIFICATIONS

When you are triaged, the nurse will assign you a “classification” to help determine the order in which you will be taken to the treatment area. Your medical condition will be classified as either emergent, urgent or non-urgent.

Emergent Classification
This includes patients who have a potential life-threatening condition or require immediate medical attention. For those patients, a time delay could be life threatening. Emergent patients are taken immediately to the treatment area.

They are often brought in through the ambulance entrance; this means we may have more patients in the treatment area than it seems from the waiting room.

Urgent Classification
This classification is given to patients who require medical attention within a period of a few hours because they face further injury or infection if they are not treated. Urgent patients are brought to the treatment area in the order of their arrival, after all Emergent patients.

Non-urgent Classification
Non-urgent patients have relatively minor conditions or ones that do not necessarily require the resources of an Emergency Department. Many non-urgent patients come to the Emergency Department in the evening or weekends when their physicians’ offices are closed. These conditions can include the flu, sore throats, fevers and the like. These patients are seen in the order of their arrival after the Emergent and Urgent patients.

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AFTER TRIAGE

After you are triaged, you may be asked to sit in the waiting room until it is your turn to go to the treatment area.

When you do go to the treatment area, please remember that the same principle applies: the order of your physician visit, lab tests, X-rays, and other procedures is determined by the seriousness of your condition as well as that of other patients. Telephones are found adjacent to the waiting room. Please do not use cellular phones inside the building.

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VISITORS

Some patients’ conditions or lab and X-ray testing may require that visitors wait in the waiting room so that emergency caregivers can quickly treat the patient. Visitation with emergency patients is encouraged at the staff’s discretion. The physician may ask you to step out of the room while he or she completes their exam or speaks to the patient.

If you or your family member is admitted to the hospital, the visiting hours for inpatients are from:
11:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. daily and
ICU patients have 30-minute visiting intervals at 8:45 a.m., 12:00 p.m.,
5:00 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

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PATIENT’S BILL OF RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Florida law requires that your health care provider or health care facility recognizes your rights while you are receiving medical care and that you respect the health care provider’s or health care facility’s right to expect certain behavior on the part of the patient.

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PATIENT’S RIGHTS FOR YOUR SAFETY

A patient has the right to:

• Be treated with courtesy, respect, dignity and protecting his/her privacy.
• A prompt and reasonable response to questions and requests.
• Know who is providing medical services and who is responsiblefor his/her care.
• Know what patients support services are available including interpreters if he/she does not speak English.
• Know what rules and regulations apply to his/her conduct.
• Be given health care providers information regarding diagnosis, planned course of treatment, alternatives, risk and prognosis.
• Refuse treatment, except as otherwise provided by law.
• Be given, upon request, full information and necessary counseling on the availability of known financial resources for care.
• Know, upon request, in advance of treatment, and if eligible for Medicare, whether the health care provider/facility accepts the Medicare assigned rate.
• Receive a copy of reasonably clear and understandable itemized bill and to have charges explained if requested.
• Impartial access to medical treatment/accommodations, regardless of race, national origin, religion, physical handicap or source of payment.
• Know if medical treatment is for purposes of experimental research and to give his/her consent or refusal to participate in research.
• Express grievances regarding any violation of his/her rights, as stated in Florida law, through the grievance procedure of the health care provider/facility, which served him/her and to the appropriate state-licensing agency.

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PATIENT RESPONSIBILITIES

A patient is responsible for:

• Providing the health care provider accurate and complete
  information about present complaints, past illnesses,
  hospitalizations, medications, and other matters relating to
  his/her health to the best of their knowledge.
• Reporting unexpected changes in his/her condition to his/her
  health care provider.
• Keeping appointments and when unable to do so for any
  reason, notify the health care provider’s instructions.
• Your actions if he/she refuses treatment or does not follow the
  health care provider’s instructions.
• Assuring that the financial obligations of his/her health care
  are fulfilled as promptly as possible.
• Following health care facility rules and regulations affecting
  patient care and conduct.

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FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS

Our staff in Patients’ Financial Service will work with you on financial arrangements for your visit. Please be sure to ask them any questions you might have.

Remember, you may be receiving bills from the emergency physicians, radiologists, pathologists and other physicians who care for you while you are in the Emergency Service area. You should receive a single bill from our hospital.

FLORIDA HOSPITAL Fish Memorial’s mission of health and wholeness through Christian service coupled with high tech equipment, dispense hope and healing as the foundation for excellence in emergency care.

When it comes to taking action in the face of a crisis, our Emergency Room team fuses together and works as an extension of one another. Their individual qualifications, specialties, training and real life experiences bring a unified strength to their thoughtful care.

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RESTROOMS and TELEPHONES

You’ll find that our restrooms, telephones, vending machines and water fountains are adjacent to emergency waiting rooms. If you are waiting to be seen by the physician, please do not eat or drink anything. We encourage you to ask as many questions as possible during your visit to the Emergency Department at FLORIDA HOSPITAL Fish Memorial. If upon discharge you are still unsure of any matter regarding the care you received, please ask us. If you have any questions once you have arrived home about your care, please call 386-917-5108 to speak to a nurse.

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CAFETERIA

Open to patients, visitors and employees.

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