An upgraded and more efficient Doctors Hospital emergency room is set to open on Wednesday.
During the past three months of construction, the front lobby of the hospital has been used as a waiting area for the ER, located at 1205 East North Street, using hospital volunteer staffers to aid in patient reception.  Now, the entrance will again be located on the side of the building facing Stafford Way adjacent to the east side parking lot.
The waiting room in the ER has not been changed but upgrades have been made to the registration desk with two windows instead of one. There is an RN station included for conversations with patients or their family members.  Three new patient exam rooms or stations have been added that are completely outfitted for emergency care.
“It has been designed to provide a shorter wait for patients,” to Brian Beenes, RN and ER department manager, noted. 
He further said by Wednesday the ER will be fully operational with quicker access for patients in non-life threatening medical needs with the hospital’s  “New Rapid Care,” program.
“We can see more patients with the three additional ER patient rooms designed to increase the speed of service allowing us the option to see a greater number of individuals with more beds available,” he said.
He explained that the peak hours in the emergency room are from noon to midnight every with eight nurses on duty during the day and beefed up service with nurse practitioners on duty along with three primary care physicians on overlapping 12 hour shifts. 
The hospital has some 12 to 15 ambulances a day coming through the rear emergency entrance that can sometimes delay patients who thought they would be the next being called. They are often unaware of an ambulance arrival.  A year ago the daily ambulance count was eight to 10 in comparison, Beenes said.
The new InQuickER service reserves a spot in the wait line and ensures a reservation for triage to see a nurse, not necessarily a doctor depending on the severity of the emergency where heart attack symptoms and stroke patients always come first.  Beenes explained that it is most important for patients to register by computer before they arrive at the hospital – with a print out of their condition immediately going into an in-basket and seen by an RN immediately after they pushed “send,” on their keyboard – with staff aware of what and who is coming.
Doctors is also a certified Primary Stroke Center as designed by the American Heart Association.  The Manteca hospital recognizes the important three hour window for treating stroke patients with clot-busting drugs that are designed to prevent paralysis up to three hours from the first symptoms.  Beenes explained that DHM is connected with University of California San Francisco (UCSF) specialists using Teleneurology with a sophisticated robot in its communication with the Bay Area facility – complete with an operational stethoscope.  The robot also allows the UCSF specialists to visually see the patient in the Manteca emergency room.
“We can use the robot for any neurological exam – not just a stroke,” Beenes said.  “It is a huge asset to the stroke program when a patient comes here with not only the hospital neurologist, but he is also screened via the robot and a UCSF neurologist.”

To contact Glenn Kahl, email gkahl@mantecabulletin.com.