Our Services
Emergency Department
Many events in our lives are unplanned and unexpected. But that doesn't mean we have to be unprepared. To meet emergency health care needs, Stevens emergency department (ED) is ready—24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And we want you to know how the Stevens emergency department operates as it treats more than 44,000 patients annually.
Visits to the hospital emergency department are usually accompanied by a great deal of fear, anxiety and stress. Patients and their families want their needs taken care of as quickly as possible. Yes, the wait can seem long, but did you know that the average length of stay in the emergency department at Stevens is 197 minutes, whereas the average ED length of stay in Puget Sound hospitals is more than 230 minutes?
Our goal is to care for all patients who enter our ED—and sometimes that means treating the most critical patients first. After an initial assessment, visitors are cared for in an order based on the nature of the illness or injury. Those in life-threatening, critical-care situations are always given top priority. Usually this order is constantly shifting as new, unexpected visitors arrive.
We try our best under these conditions to keep everyone apprised of an estimated time for treatment. Patient care liaisons circulate throughout the waiting room to keep patients and their families constantly informed of the current status in the ED.
Other factors may also affect the time it takes to receive treatment, such as:
- A patient might require a specific room with equipment that is already in use.
- Results of some procedures, such as x-rays, lab tests and scans, take time to be processed.
- Specialty physicians may have to be consulted or called to examine a patient.
- Some patients might be waiting for admission to the hospital.
Of course, there's always the need for information from a patient or a family member. Some items that need to be taken care of include: consent for care, insurance, billing and the creation of records for your visit.
Visitors and visitations in the ED are allowed but limited. This helps us deal with the challenges of serving our patients' needs and providing them privacy.
Our pledge is to always provide our patients with excellent care.
