How Emergency Room Works?

What comes to your mind when you think about an Emergency Room? Most people envision an ambulance screeching to a stop proceeded by a group of frantic nurses and physicians pushing a gurney down the hallway in an effort to save a life. Others associate emergency rooms with broken limbs, gory scenes of blood scattered everywhere and whatnot.

Whereas such scenes are not uncommon in emergency rooms, most of the time, emergency rooms are not that frantic or nowhere near that dramatic. The emergency room’s working is something most people don’t quite understand and this blog will help shed some light on what to expect in an emergency room.

Here are some of the most common things you expect from the moment you walk into an emergency room, to the time you check out;

Triage

This is the first step once one get to an emergency room. Triage refers to the process of assessing each patient’s medical condition to determine how serious it is. The nurse who conducts the triage then classifies the conditions into three categories.

Depending on how serious a condition is, it is classified either as immediately life threatening, urgent, but not immediately threatening and less urgent. Priority is then awarded in order of urgency.

Recording of a patient’s medical information

Just like any medical facility, once you visit an emergency room, you will be required to provide personal information at the reception. You will need to provide personal address, insurance information and other important pieces of information.

If you are in a critical condition, this will be done by a relative. Alternatively, you will be stabilized first and then the information recorded later.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis is aimed at determining exactly what the problem is and how serious your complication is. This is carried out through a serious of oral discussions and physical examination of your body. This is carried out by a registered nurse or the physician depending on availability.

Special tests

Depending on what it is that you are suffering from, there are further tests that may be required to further understand you problem. In the emergency room, expect X-rays, blood tests, CT scans, ultrasounds and many other medical aimed at fully understanding your problem and coming up with a comprehensive report on your medical condition.

Treatment and prescription of medication

Treatment and medication is offered once the nurse or physician is certain of the specific problem bothering you. The medication can be in form of an injection, tablets or therapy depending on the condition bothering you.

Surgery

Yes, emergency rooms are can conduct some minor surgeries if need be. Minor surgeries are conducted to remove foreign objects and shrapnel lodged in one’s body. You should therefore not be surprised when you are summoned to the operating room to get a minor surgery.

Referral to other high level facilities

Although most emergency rooms are well equipped, they most of the time don’t have every facility and all the required specialists to warrant comprehensive treatment. They therefore will do everything possible to make you comfortable and then send you out to a higher level institution for treatment.

Medical report

At the end of the ER visit, the physicians or the nurses will take time to inform you of your medical diagnosis and offer treatment recommendations. Your recommendations will be for discharge from the ER, admission to a specific specialty area of the hospital, or transfer to a medical facility best suited to care for your specific health need. Even without treatment, the physician can offer free advice on how you should go about your problem to avoid any further problems.

Checkout

After the treatment and presentation of the medical report, you will then be required to checkout. This is where your total bill is looked at and emailed to you. Some emergency rooms prefer instant payments after treatment while others will mail you the bill later on.

There you have it, an emergency room is not as frantic and dramatic as you envisioned it to be. Everything is systematic and all systems are set in a manner such that everyone receives the care they need as soon as possible.

The next time you are struggling with asthma attacks, difficulties breathing or even a stomachache, don’t be scared to head to the nearest emergency room for medical care.

Here at Frontline Emergency Room in Richmond, TX, we offer high quality no wait emergency care services provided by board certified physicians and registered nurses. Day or night, we are always available to serve you and offer the care you need.

If you are in Richmond or Dallas and are looking for an emergency room, look no further than our way. For more information on our services, give us a call today and we will gladly be of service.

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