What’s missing in the DeTar EDs? Nothing but the long wait!

If you’ve visited a DeTar Healthcare System Emergency Department (ED) recently, you may have noticed something missing: the long wait. That’s because we’ve worked diligently to reduce the amount of time you have to spend in our new reception areas. That’s correct: Throughout DeTar, you’ll discover we no longer have waiting rooms—only reception areas.

At DeTar Hospital Navarro and DeTar Hospital North, our physicians and staff have committed to getting our patients initially seen by a physician within 30 minutes, so there’s really no need to call it a waiting room.

“Our commitment to our patients is to get them from the front door to a qualified medical professional within 30 minutes,” says William R. Blanchard, FACHE, chief executive officer. “We’ve been tracking our performance and feel confident that we can make this pledge to our community.”

Both DeTar EDs can care for emergencies, but DeTar Hospital Navarro is a Level III trauma center so you may ask yourself how we can commit to a 30-minute service commitment. Well, we asked ourselves that, too.

The fast - track process We understand how valuable your time is, so we’ve built in processes to help ease any bumps we may experience due to our trauma center status. For instance, it’s possible that a situation could arise that would inundate us with multiple trauma victims whose care would necessitate immediate treatment. That’s why we’ve developed a system that fast tracks patients who have nonemergent illnesses or injuries to a midlevel practitioner for treatment and discharge.

DeTar Hospital North DeTar Hospital North also touts an impressive turnaround average of 78 minutes. That means we’ll get you back home in two hours or less in most cases. Kelly Howard, R.N., DeTar Hospital North’s ED nurse manager, believes that’s why the number of patients they see now equals the number of patients seen in the ED at the Navarro campus. “We’re much busier than we were a few years ago,” says Howard. “We’ve nearly doubled our previous capacity. We have to keep up with the demands of our community, and the increased number of visits we see here means we had to have more beds.”

In March, DeTar Hospital North’s $1.5-million ED expansion project added more beds to the facility and increased the hospital’s ability to handle a significant number of patients in a timelier manner. “Adding more beds means we can get our patients out of the reception area and into an ED bed more quickly so the physician can see them more quickly,” adds Howard.

If you haven’t visited us lately, we invite you to step into our world of patient-centered, technology-enabled healthcare.