Emergency Hyperbaric Medicine
Staffed by board certified physicians and experienced emergency nurses, Kent's Emergency Department (ED) is the second largest in the state. Caring for 60,000 patients annually, the ED offers 24 hour a day comprehensive, critical care for all types of medical problems in a state-of-the-art facility backed by the latest clinical information and diagnostic systems.
Our Expresscare Service offers convenient access to care for non life-threatening illnesses and injuries seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
Emergency Department Expansion
Completed in early 2005, the $11.6 marked department expansion doubled the size of the former facilities and has significantly enhanced patient comfort, convenience and privacy.
The Kent Emergency Department offers:
- Increased space and capacity to respond to community growth and demand
- Enhanced patient confidentiality, comfort and privacy
- Improved patient flow and decreased waiting times
- Enlarged waiting areas and improved space for families to visit with patients
- New grade level ambulance entrance with overhead shelter for multiple arriving EMS Units
- Enlarged patient care spaces-45 dedicated hard-walled treatment bays
- Dedicated isolation and behavior health care rooms
- State-of-the-art decontamination facility & a mobile unit for additional capacity
- New separate walk-in entrance and registration areas
- Dedicated emergency pediatric unit; waiting area and treatment rooms staffed by experienced pediatric specialty doctors and nurses
- Digital radiology to enhance diagnostic services and speed diagnoses
- A design that can accommodate up to 90,000 patients annually
Patient Rapid Assessment
The patient rapid assessment model has dramatically reduced waiting time and in many instances it has been virtually eliminated. In the past, the average wait time to be seen when coming to the ED was two hours, while the entire patient visit averaged six hours. Today, with this new model of care, the average wait time is less than 45 minutes and the average overall patient visit is four hours while efforts are ongoing to not only maintain that but to continually improve.
This has been accomplished by establishing a more streamlined patient journey. A patient arrives at Kent and walks into the ED guest lobby and is greeted by a friendly patient advocate (a new role implemented in the new model) and escorted back into the treatment area to the intake booth.
From here a host of activities take place quickly including registration, bed assignment, nurse/provider interaction, lab work, x-rays, etc. Upon completion of testing a final determination is made on discharge or admission. If being discharged, the patient is given instructions, escorted to exit registration and given any necessary prescriptions.
The rapid assessment model is currently in place from 9 a.m. through 9 p.m. every day. Expansion of these hours is anticipated later this year or early in 2012.
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