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As
you can see, the ER physician sees a huge range of medical conditions
- no other speciality in medicine sees the variety of conditions
that an emergency room physician sees. This is why, at MPH, we have
a team of doctors with broad general medical experience as well
as the skills to cope with emergency or critical patients.
We understand
that a visit to the emergency room can be a stressful event for
the following reasons:
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There is the fear of not knowing what is wrong with you.
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There is the fear of having to visit an unfamiliar place filled
with people you have never met.
-
There is the fear of possibly having to undergo tests that you
do not understand without able to easily ask questions or have
them explained to you.
If
you find the need to visit our emergency room, we hope to make your
experience less stressful by explaining what happens at MPH.
Triage
When a patient arrives at the ER Department, they are first triaged.
This is when each patient's condition is prioritised. A nurse usually
does this. There are three general categories of prioritisation:
- Patients
with immediately life threatening conditions.
- Patients
who have urgent but not immediately life threatening conditions.
- Less
urgent Patients.
Triage
is necessary so that a patient with a life threatening condition
is not kept waiting because they arrived a few minutes later than
someone with a more routine problem. It also helps to allay the
fears of a patient who assumes he has a life threatening condition,
which may, in fact, be less urgent.
The nurse records the patient's vital signs (temperature, pulse,
respiratory rate and blood pressure). She also gets a brief history
of the patient's current medical complaints, past medical problems,
medications and allergies so that she can determine the appropriate
triage category.
Diagnosis
The Emergency Medicine physician will get a more detailed medical
history about present illness, past medical problems, family history
and social history. For this he often needs the help of family or
friends who have accompanied the patient. He will complete a full
physical examination. He then formulates a list of possible causes
of the problem. (differential diagnosis). The most likely diagnosis
is then determined by the patient's symptoms and physical examination.
If there is not enough information to make a diagnosis from the
history and physical examination, then diagnostic tests are required.
Treatment
When the emergency physician has all the information he can obtain,
he makes a determination of the most likely diagnosis. In any event,
the patient's condition is stabilized in the ER. This may require
the insertion of an intravenous line, or other invasive techniques,
depending on the seriousness of the patient's condition. Once stabilized,
the patient will either be treated by the ER team and discharged,
admitted to the hospital, transferred to a specialist consultant
for further care, or transferred to a more appropriate medical facility.
Disposition
If you are discharged you will receive discharge instructions explaining
your medications and other treatments. Medications prescribed may
be purchased from our 24 hour pharmacy. You may be referred to an
outpatient clinic for follow-up care.
You may need to be transferred if your condition is better treated
at another institution.
Conclusion
The ER Department performs an important role at MPH. Hopefully the
information here will help ease your fears should you have need
of our services in the future!
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