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Better than the ER
Our surgeons operate and are on call at local hospitals. They've seen
how long it takes for patients who have presented in the emergency
department with fractures, even simple cases, to be treated. They
thought they could accommodate emergent cases in a more efficient
manner. As it turns out, they've proven themselves right.
Consider the typical visit to a hospital's emergency department or a
general urgent care center. Patients with uncomplicated fractures will,
by necessity, be triaged to the end of the line, behind the cardiac, trau-
ma and other critical cases that arrive in the meantime. There's a sub-
stantial wait just to be evaluated and taken to radiology for an X-ray,
then another wait for an on-call physician to issue a diagnosis. Then
they're waiting again for the orthopedic specialist. If he's not immedi-
ately available, they might be referred to his office for treatment the
following day. In short, there are long waits and a lot of hoops to jump
through.
Since our ASC's surgical schedule isn't triaged with life-threatening
injuries, we're usually able to provide same-day access to the appro-
priate orthopedic expert for fairly immediate, streamlined treatment
and more continuity of care. Patients who arrive with a fracture can
be seen, evaluated, X-rayed and, in the event the fracture needs to be
set, treated and discharged in relatively short order. It's possible
they'll be back home before they would've even been seen in the
emergency department.
If several immediate-care cases arrive at once, we'll triage them
based on patient age (the youngest are treated first), the severity of
injury (compound fractures take precedence over simple ones) and
the length of time the case can wait (leg fractures typically should be
done sooner than wrists). And, of course, we'll verify patients' overall
general health status to ensure they're appropriate to treat in the sur-
O R T H O P E D I C S
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