✚ HANDS-ON MEDICINE B Y
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elcome to the San Jacinto Methodist Hospital Emergency Department. Ambulances still screech to a halt outside its doors, people drive themselves here for treatment. Inside, doctors and nurses work at a feverish pace to tip the balance between life and death. But something is different here — some element is missing, something awry that makes this emergency center different from many others, even the ERs you see on TV. What’s missing are the people waiting, waiting, waiting — to see a doctor, to receive treatment for a minor injury or to be admitted into the hospital, if needed. The reason why is San Jacinto’s new model for emergency service, designed by the department’s health care team and its lead physicians, Drs. Paul Torre and Amir Rassoli. When a person comes to the emergency department during peak hours, the first hospital representative that person sees is a doctor-nurse team. A cadre of nurses, physicians and nurse practitioners immediately evaluates patients. “We put the doctor and nurses up front, right where the person walks in,” explained Torre, the emergency department medical director. “As the person tells us the nature of his or her complaint, we’re diagnosing the problem and beginning treatment right there.” Many of the individual steps that were taking place before a patient was seen by a doctor have now been combined to speed up the treatment process. “If it’s something like an ankle sprain, we can send the patient for X-rays immediately. If it’s a complaint that can be treated with medication, we can write the prescription right there,” said Rassoli, the assistant medical director. “As we get the patient’s information, the nurse and doctor are working simultaneously… getting vital signs, beginning treatment. Everything happens virtually at once.” Since the new process began in June 2005, the doctors say the department has been able to reduce a patient’s time from door to doctor. There also has been a sharp 75 percent drop in patients who leave the emergency department without treatment due to long waits.
34 䡲 VOLUME 4, NUMBER 2
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