Emergency room is a hospital department that provides immediate care when any delay of treatment could cause extreme suffering or threaten life. People can go to an emergency room—commonly called an ER—at any time of the day or night without an appointment. People typically seek emergency care for such urgent matters as suspected heart attacks, strokes, broken bones, severe pain, or serious wounds. In the United States, a federal law requires an ER to examine anyone requesting care.
Evaluation of patients begins as soon as they enter the ER. In many ER’s, the first person whom a patient sees is a nurse with special skill in triage << tree AHZH >>. Triage involves deciding the order in which patients should be treated based on a preliminary judgment about the seriousness of their conditions. The sickest patients receive care first. Patients whose care can safely be put off for an hour or two must wait until more urgent cases have been seen. For example, a patient with symptoms of a heart attack would be treated before a person with a sprained ankle, regardless of who arrived first.
In addition to triage specialists and other nurses, emergency rooms are staffed by doctors, doctors-in-training, clerks, and technicians. The best ER’s employ doctors and nurses who are specially trained in emergency medicine. Providing emergency care requires skill in lifesaving techniques as well as wide knowledge of all types of illness and injury. In addition, ER professionals must make rapid decisions, act quickly, and remain calm in highly stressful situations.
When a patient’s turn arrives, a doctor performs a thorough examination and identifies the problem. Emergency rooms are outfitted with the equipment and supplies needed to diagnose and treat an extremely broad range of illnesses and injuries. In an ER, results of X rays, blood tests, and other diagnostic procedures are reported to doctors immediately.
Some patients go home after appropriate emergency treatment—for example, after a deep cut has been cleaned and stitched. These patients can see their own doctors later for any further care needed. Patients who require more extensive treatment may be admitted to other departments of the hospital.
In certain developed countries, many people rely on emergency rooms for nonemergency care. Some of these patients seek care in an ER because they have no personal doctor and so have difficulty getting an appointment to see one when they are sick. Other patients feel that they are too sick or injured to wait for their doctor to see them during normal office hours.
