A kinder, gentler ER

Jul 07, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Bringing someone with a medical problem to an emergency-care facility can be unnerving for a caregiver because of the time it takes before the paperwork is processed and someone on staff begins to check the patient.

At state-of-the-art Albany Medical Center, in Albany, N.Y., however, bedside computerized registration allows the patient to provide personal information and be examined at the same time.

The facility, called The Family of Charles and Winifred Touhey Emergency Care Center, could be considered the new model ER -- a kinder, gentler emergency room.

The Touhey center is designed for more patient privacy and better efficiency, but along with a better physical environment, it provides more sensitive care.

For example, the ER offers a free valet parking service -- patients and family can enter the ER while an attendant parks and later retrieves the vehicle.

About 10 percent to 20 percent of U.S. hospital ERs employ this new patient-friendly model.

Dr. Mara McErlean, chairwoman of emergency medicine at Albany Med, helped design the new ER. She called it "an ER where we (in the medical community) wanted to receive our care" and vastly different from the ER in which she trained.

"There was one critical care room surrounded by cubicles and if there was a crisis everybody experienced it," McErlean told UPI's Caregiving.

In July 2004 Albany Med's new $10.6 million emergency-department expansion project opened after four years of planning and construction.

The new ER consists of four "mini-emergency rooms" within the larger facility, with areas specifically designated for pediatrics, trauma, critical care and minor emergencies. Each area features its own nursing station and equipment.

The facility's sophisticated trauma suite includes larger rooms to accommodate staff for initial evaluation and stabilization, radiology equipment that allows patients to remain with emergency-department staff at bedside, and a computer system that enables diagnostic images, test results and other medical data to be shared at bedside.

"Privacy is key to our new ER, the rooms are private except for one that has two beds, which are designed to treat family members of an accident so they don't have to be separated," McErlean said. "We have an area designated for sexual-assault victims that is embedded deep in the department where they can feel safe -- the shower and bathroom can be locked."

Albany Med's new ER also includes a child-advocacy center to provide sexual or physical-abuse victims coordinated investigations by police and social agencies while they receive medical care and counseling in a safe, child-friendly environment.

An 80-year-old ER in an old hospital can deliver excellent care, but emergency medicine can be stressful and imitating, so anything that can be done to alleviate the funny smells, noises, harsh light, overcrowding and lack of privacy can make it a less overwhelming experience, said Dr. Matt Miles, director of pediatric emergency medicine at Albany Med.

"People in medicine can become a bit jaded and desensitized just as it is in any other occupation," Miles told Caregiving, "but almost everyone whom I've worked with in ER recognizes how stressful it is for patients -- everyone is aware of that -- and they make an effort to explain things to patients to create a comforting environment."

He added that almost every ER "would like to do what we can do, but it takes funding and space -- and usually both are hard to come by in most hospitals."

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Alex Cukan covers health and health-policy issues for UPI Science News. E-mail: sciencemail@upi.com