Emergency Care at Memorial Hospital Pembroke

Major medical emergencies pose an immediate risk to life or long-term health. Always call 911 for life-threatening conditions. An EMS team will respond. EMS responders are specially trained to assess the situation, stabilize patients and alert the hospital ER team so we are prepared when the patient arrives.

Minor emergencies include:

• Back pain
• Bites and stings
• Cold and flu symptoms
• Cough and sore throat
• Cuts
• Diarrhea
• Earaches
• Eye injuries or infections
• Rashes and skin infections
• Sprains and strains
• Sunburn
• Urinary tract infections

The first step after arrival is the triage process. You will be registered into our advanced computer system and asked several specific questions about your injury/illness. Our registration team, registered nurses and technicians/paramedics will help you complete this process. The busier we are, the longer it may take to do this process. For efficiency, we may order X-rays and various lab work while you wait in triage for a bed to become available in a treatment room.

More extensive minor injuries and/or illnesses are treated in the Super Track Care area by a licensed physician’s assistant or nurse practitioner, registered nurse, paramedic and emergency care technician. They work directly with our board-certified emergency room physicians to meet your healthcare needs in a timely manner.

Our main treatment area has several beds dedicated to all serious injuries and/or illnesses, and we are fully staffed with board-certified emergency room physicians, registered nurses, paramedics, registered respiratory therapists and emergency care technicians. We have specialists on call to provide you with any treatment you might require.

You may receive several treatments and/or interventions. Below are estimated times for some common emergency room procedures and may be affected by high patient volumes.

Diagnostics

• Blood tests – 1.5 hours
• Urine tests – 45 minutes (after collection)
• X-rays – 30 minutes to 1 hour
• Ultrasound – 1 to 2.5 hours
• CT scan – 1 to 2.5 hours

Treatments

• IV fluids – 1 to 2 hours
• IV antibiotic – 20 minutes
• Oral antibiotic – 20 minutes
• IV pain medication – 20 minutes
• Oral pain medication – 20 minutes
• Discharge process – 45 minutes to 1 hour

After your visit has been completed, the physician has reviewed all of your healthcare information and your condition is considered stable, you may be discharged home. This process will involve discharge instructions that are specific to your diagnosis, prescription medications provided to you by the doctor and any follow-up information needed after you are discharged home. Please let us know if you have any questions before the discharge process has been completed. We care about your concerns.

If the doctor feels that your condition would be better served by admitting you overnight to our hospital, we will take care of the details for you including:

• Contact your private physician or the physician who is on call for your insurance
• Admission orders specific to your injury/illness
• Identify the appropriate hospital unit in which you should stay to best serve your condition
• Transport to that unit when a bed becomes available. Or, if you need a higher level of care than we can provide, we will transport you to the appropriate hospital.