Emergency Department

I'd like to take a moment to discuss all the room changes.

Room 1:

I arrived at a busy, downtown hospital at 5pm on a Friday night. The hospital didn't know who I was, whether they'd seen me before, whether I had created an Advanced Directive.... They needed my permission to treat.... Triage


Room 2:

Even though everyone knew I would be admitted, to the oncology floor, they had to put me somewhere and stabilize my condition. I think the Good Sam Emergency Department is bigger than some hospitals I've been in! There were different zones, designated by colors. I suspect the zones permit staff and equipment to be organized by type of medical issue and treatment. Green 17 (or was it 12?)


Room 3:

Once they got a wrist band on me and asked about allergies and put my shoes in a bag and got my signatures, they had done all they could for me in the ER. They needed that room to offer another patient the same services. They moved me to a different ER room. It was during that transfer that my cane was lost. Maybe that was Green 12.


Room 4:

Finding a room for a patient turned out to be no small matter. What department or floor? What gender? What special needs? And is such a bed available? Good Sam handles this in a way I have never seen before. There is a department just for patients in the process of being admitted. Pretty large alcoves run along a wall, with curtains separating them from the common hall area. I was still on a gurney. I think. I saw my own doctor there for the first time. I met with the Admissions and Registration people, signing even more papers. I spent my first night in ... Transitions