A renovation project to help improve emergency room services at Sycamore Shoals Hospital is now complete.
In order to better serve patients and make sure they receive the proper level of care, Sycamore Shoals Hospital created a new clinic space — complete with its own waiting room — for lower acuity care inside the emergency room.
When many people think about an emergency room at a hospital they think of serious injuries or life threatening conditions, but in truth emergency rooms see patients with a wide variety of treatment needs.
“There are some patients that are unable to get in to see their primary physician or something happens after hours,” said Emergecy Department Nursing Manager Regina Barkley. Often times those patients come to the emergency room to receive care.
“If a child has an earache that may not seem like an emergency, but if that is your child crying at 3 in the morning that is an emergency to you,” Barkley said.
Those patients who come in with minor injuries or illnesses can sometimes feel like they get lost in the shuffle as emergency room staff tend to patients brought in with serious injuries or conditions, Barkley said.
Trying to better serve the patients needing a lower level of care was the idea behind creating the new lower acuity clinic inside the emergency room, Barkley said. Patients whose conditions do not require the equipment of a traditional ER patient room — such as oxygen, heart monitors or IVs — are brought to the lower acuity waiting room. From there they are taken into a private evaluation room to meet with medical staff.
The lower acuity clinic has the same capabilities as the rest of the ER Barkley said. Staff can order lab tests, order x-rays, complete exams and even stitch up wounds in the new clinic area.
The area that is now a clinic was once a work area for physicians, nurse practitioners and other ER staff.
“Our whole goal in this was to meet the needs of the community,” Barkley said. “Most of us who work here live in this community. These are our family, our friends, our neighbors and we want to take care of them.”
In addition to the creation of the new clinic space, the emergency room and its primary waiting room also went through some renovations to have a new, more comforting look.