Emergency: Reducing the Wait

Evelyn Johnson doesn't remember arriving at the hospital. She had collapsed when eating lunch with her daughter and was rushed by ambulance to Willamette Valley Medical Center's Emergency Department.

Johnson said when she awoke, two nurses were attending her and "they treated me with dignity." Johnson had surgery to implant a pacemaker the day after she arrived.

For patients with heart issues, like Johnson, and others who come to the Emergency Department, reducing the time to receive treatment is critical.

Donna Albarella, Emergency Department Director, is glad that the construction is complete and the department has gained new bays and an easy-access entrance. However, she and her Emergency Department team have not stopped there. Their goal? To reduce the wait time for patients and their families; and they've taken several steps in order to make that happen:

New Expanded Facilities
The recent expansion has added a brand new 20-bay Emergency Department that includes a new central monitoring system, three state-of-the-art trauma rooms, two chest pain rooms and two triage rooms.

More Physicians
Three new Emergency Department physicians have joined the hospital staff to substantially decrease the response time for patients.

New Staff Scheduling
In addition to adding more physicians, the medical staff will be working 8-hour overlapping shifts to increase availability of physician care for patients.

An Ongoing Task Force
An Emergency Department Task Force is in place to study new ideas and monitor key data, including patient wait times, to help maintain the hospital's high quality of care while reducing wait times.

"Visits to the Emergency Department are unplanned," said Albarella, "but we want our patients to know that we've been planning for them. We are continuing to study the way we do things to reduce wait times and get them the care they need."

Evelyn Johnson and her family were glad the Emergency Department was ready for her when she made her unplanned visit late in September. "I got real good care," she said. "The nurses were very good. Even my daughter was impressed with the hospital and the care I received. She told me, 'Mom, this is a good hospital.'"