Why do people go to emergency departments?
For those of us working in health care, we know that emergency rooms are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and they exist to help the most critically ill or injured patients as quickly as possible. If a person’s condition isn’t critical, sometimes they’ll have to wait to be seen and we know this can be frustrating.
A short emergency department survey
We also know that sometimes people choose to go to an emergency department when they don’t need emergency attention, so we developed a short survey to help us understand why people choose the emergency department over other options.
Our goal with this survey is not to discourage people in serious need from using emergency departments; we just want to learn about when and why Vancouver Coastal Health residents go to the emergency department. We want to see if there any information gaps we can fill about additional health care options in the communities we serve.
Share the emergency department survey
Please share this short survey with your friends, families and networks through email, social media and word-or-mouth so we can gain as broad a range of insights as possible. Take the survey yourself and tell us why you might choose to go to emergency department instead of using other health care options.
Take the surveyThis survey will help inform our larger emergency department decongestion efforts by potentially identifying information gaps and pointing VCH residents to other options they might not know about. Thanks in advance for your help!
Jillian
This subject has come up numrerous times in the many years that I have worked with VCH.
The number one place the public depend on as an option for medical treatment other than the emergency room is the walk-in clinics. I remember when my children were younger having to drive around to various walk-in clinics in Richmond trying to find one that was open. From my observations the biggest challenge to obtain medical care at these clinics were:
1. Finding one that was open
2. Wait times – unless you booked ahead, impromptu visits meant sitting for hours (with sick children that is no fun)
3. Sub-standard medical care from rude physicians that are too ready with a prescription pat and trying to get you out of the clinic as fast as possible.
4. The medical staff at the clinics do not have access to your medical history nor have taken the time to listen to your medical history or concerns
5. Resutls: Several times ordered test results never made it to my own family physican.
6. VCH protocols: clinics were greatly lacking in the respect and privacy that we expect from a VCH site.
7. PRIVACY: There is nothing more embarassing then having a physician come out into the waiting area to follow up with your concerns in a full public waiting toom!!!!!!
My suggestioin would be to have VCH satellite sites that could triage “emergency” visits and stem the flow to the hospiatl emergencies. At least people would feel confident to be treated under the VCH guidelines and know of the hours of operation, also comforted to know that they will get the correct treatment. The staff would have online access to the client’s medical information relay the details of the visit to the appropriate professionals and medical facitlies that should be notified of any changes of the patient’s condition.
Access to these clinics wouild also be a great benefit during the holiday seasons that occur throughout the year. There is nothing worse they frantically turning up at a walk-in clinic and seeing a sign on the door stating that the clinic is closed because the physician is away for a holiday, deliviering babies etc..
Give us an option and it just might alleviate the non-emergency visits to emegency room!
Brenda
AMEN! I will never forget the dressing down I got from my caring doctor for having gone to a clinic rather than Emerg. He clearly believed that the service delivered at walk-in clinics was second rate! (I wasn’t very impressed with my treatment at the walk-in clinic either.)
Jillian
I also forgot to add that with the clinics being linked to VCH sites and medical professionals, those patients with a language barrier would greatly benefit also. Just imagine clinic where there was access to medical history involving medications, test results, diagnoses, alerts, allergies etc…. and was available out of regular hours!