By Daniel Wolowiczdanielw@theacorn.com
While playing a weekend game
of driveway hoops, you roll your
ankle and a sharp pain rockets up
your leg. In a few moments, your
throbbing ankle has begun to swell
and you figure it’s badly sprained,
possibly broken.
Your family doctor suggests
you go to an emergency room.
Upon arriving, you’re told the wait
may take up to five hours.
With the continual closures of
emergency rooms across the
United States and the increase in
ER visits by people seeking regular care, waiting time in emergency
rooms continues to rise.
According to a report released
earlier this year by the Center for
Disease Control, visits to emergency rooms increased by 26 percent between 1993 and 2003.
More than 113 million people
made trips to the ER in 2003.
In addition, more than 12 percent of the nation’s hospitals
closed their emergency room
doors during those 10 years.
Ventura County saw the closures of both Santa Paula Memorial Hospital and the Westlake Village Medical Center. Los Angeles
County hospitals were hit especially hard, closing 10 of 23 emergency rooms over the past decade.
There are only seven acute care
hospitals in Ventura County with
emergency rooms.
Fortunately, there is an alternative. For most non-life threatening
injuries, an urgent care center can
offer basically the same treatment
as an emergency room, generally
in half the time.
“We can do 85 to 90 percent of
the same things that an emergency
room can do,” said Dr. Razmig
Krumian, a doctor at the Westlake
Village Urgent Care Center, which
serves this area from its L.A. County
location. “If it’s life threatening, it
does not belong here; it belongs in
an emergency room.”
Emergency Rooms
Call 911 if you have chest pain
or difficulty breathing. The two
symptoms may be signs of heart
problems, a severe allergic reaction, asthma or pneumonia. Patients should also call 911 immediately if there are signs of a stroke.
Symptoms may include numbness
in any extremity.
It’s recommended that patients
call an ambulance because immediate medical care while enroute
to the hospital may be necessary.
An ambulance will only take patients to an emergency room, not
an urgent care center.
Serious injuries such as a bad
burn, an amputation, severe head
trauma, a complicated fracture or
electrical shock should be treated
in an emergency room.
ER attention is also required if
someone shows an altered mental
state, seizures or is unconscious.
An ER visit is also recommended
if poison is ingested.
Legally, all emergency rooms
cannot deny anyone care and
emergency room staff cannot ask
for type of payment before medical services are performed.
Most major hospitals staff
emergency rooms with doctors
who are board certified in ER
medicine. All emergency room
doctors at Los Robles and Simi
Valley hospitals are certified in ER
medicine.
According the Los Robles officials, Los Robles is the only hospital in Ventura County with pediatric accreditation.
Los Robles has about 15 physicians in its emergency room rotation, while Simi Valley has
seven. Both hospitals staff 35 ER
nurses.
Los Robles sees about 37,000
patients in its emergency room per
year, and Simi Valley reports
nearly 25,000 ER visits annually.
Diane Freeman, a nurse and
director of the Los Robles ER,
said wait times for the hospital’s
ER can be anywhere from 20 minutes to several hours, with the
most critically injured patients
treated first.
Emergency rooms are open 24
hours a day, seven days a week.
Urgent Care
By law, urgent care facilities must
have oxygen, a defibrillator, and x-ray
and laboratory capabilities.
Urgent care centers can handle
a myriad of non-life threatening
problems such as a cough, fever,
vomiting, sore throat, diarrhea,
earache, insect/snake bites and
minor cuts requiring stitches.
In addition, urgent care centers
treat anything from minor burns and
simple fractures to removing moles
and treating infected toenails.
Most urgent care centers will
also provide drug screening, give
travel immunizations and perform
school and work physicals.
Although urgent care centers,
which are typically privately
owned, aren’t legally required to treat
everyone, Krumian said, doctors are
ethically required to provide help.
Krumian said he’s never heard of anyone being turned away from his urgent care center.
Westlake Village Urgent Care
Center is a privately owned facility
with five physicians on staff. Krumian
said the doctors are primarily general
practitioners, but the center also has a
hand specialist and a plastic surgeon
on call.
Urgent care centers also treat patients on an as-needed basis. Wait
times, however, for urgent care centers are typically shorter.
Westlake Village Urgent Care
Center provides services to nearly
15,000 patients a year, clinic officials
said. Their facilities are open 7 a.m.
to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
Wherever you seek care, bring a
list of all current medications, as well
as list of any medications you’re
allergic to.
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