From Emergency to Urgent Care - We're Still Here For You!
- June 2009 LEAD STORY
- All Stories
This year, the Emergency Room (ER) Departments at our Port Colborne Site and Douglas Memorial Site in Fort Erie are converting to 24-hour/7-day a week Urgent Care Centres. Hospital staff members are intensely involved in making sure this is a safe and smooth transition for the public. Port Colborne's conversion takes place July 6 and Fort Erie's conversion is targeted for late September this year.
Key Facts
- Port Colborne Site's ER Department will convert to an Urgent Care Centre (July 6, 2009).
- Douglas Memorial Site's ER Department will convert to an Urgent Care Centre (targeting September 2009).
- Both Centres will be open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day
- The doctors/nurses staffing the Urgent Care Centres will have the same training as ER staff, with the same equipment – they can handle any case that comes in.
- The majority (up to 95%) of the patients who now come to these sites for their emergency care will continue to be served in Fort Erie and Port Colborne.
- Serious emergency and life-threatening cases will go by ambulance or car to full-service ERs in Welland or Niagara Falls or beyond, as their medical condition dictates.
- For Port Colborne and Fort Erie sites, the main differences in the service are that ambulances will no longer bring emergency patients to these sites and patients will no longer be admitted directly to inpatient beds at these sites.
- As has been the case for the past few years, patients will be transferred to a larger Niagara Health site for consultations with specialists and when they need sophisticated diagnostic tests.
- At Niagara Health Emergency and Urgent/Prompt Care departments, new medical directives allow specially-trained RNs to order blood work and diagnostic tests to help reduce the wait time for patients being assessed and treated.