Page 10 - Kadlec Regional Medical Center | 2012 Community Report

A New Emergency Care MODEL
Kadlec’s award-winning emergency service is expanding in an innovative way with
construction of a 16,000-square foot freestanding emergency department on 19th Avenue
and Highway 395 in Kennewick. It is scheduled to open in early summer 2013.
Over the past decade Kadlec has outgrown its hospital-based ED in Richland. Currently it
gets 60,000 visits a year in a site designed to handle 50,000. As Kadlec leaders looked at the
community’s population growth and increasing demand for emergency services, they knew
that something major had to be done. “No one wants to sit several hours in a waiting room
because of congestion in the emergency department,” said John Matheson, MD, medical
director, Kadlec emergency department.
Kadlec surveyed Tri-Cities residents to determine if they would drive across town for
emergency care if they knew they would be treated and released in half the time of a
normal hospital ED visit. Sixty-six percent of respondents said they would.
The new ED will be open and staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It will have 15
exam rooms, advanced diagnostic imaging and on-site laboratory services. The south
Kennewick location will serve both that growing city and as far away as northeast Oregon.
Designed to treat patients promptly in an emergency department setting, this new ED is not
like a walk-in clinic. Kadlec patterned the facility and service after the highly successful non-
hospital emergency departments developed by Swedish Medical Center in the Seattle area.
There is a huge gap between what can be done in a traditional outpatient clinic and an
acute-care hospital. Many people don’t require hospitalization and full inpatient treat-
ment, but they need much more than clinic services or home care. A freestanding ED fits
perfectly in the middle of that range. Even patients with complicated diagnoses – such as
acute asthma, dehydration, congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease – often respond rapidly to appropriate therapy.
“A freestanding ED is a place to quickly evaluate patients, stabilize and treat them, and then
closely observe them,” explained Carla May, RN, clinical coordinator, Kadlec emergency
department. “Many will get much better during the initial treatment period and avoid an
expensive hospital admission.”
Patientswill be takendirectly to anopen room, bypassing the typical triage and registrationprocess
that frequently results in queuing and long EDwait times.“Direct bedding”of patients, immediate
initiation of treatment and in-room registration will improve care and eliminate wasted effort.
Dr. Matheson emphasized that the ED will directly support the work of local emergency
response teams. By not having to drive so far to deliver patients, paramedics and EMTs
will be back into service quicker and better able to cover their territory.
“Kadlec provides extensive
hospital-based and outpatient
services of excellent quality to the
region. This allows more patients
to get more of their health care
needs met closer to home.
Kadlec is also a major employer
and supporter of medical
education. Commitment to
providing patient-centered, safe
and effective care sets Kadlec
apart. Kadlec is positioned to
change as the health care
industry, govenmental and
societal needs and
constraints change.
New technologies and new
opportunities to participate in
and shape those changes to the
benefit of our community will be
the most challenging and exciting
opportunity in the next decade.
In this, Kadlec’s basic culture is to
help each individual patient and
their family overcome their health
challenges. That will not change.”
—Board Member
David L. Merkley, MD
Physician