Emergency Department FAQs

During triage, a nurse will conduct a brief medical history and exam to determine the severity of your condition. Shortly after triage, a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant will complete an initial assessment to get your treatment plan started.

Emergency department wait times depend on a variety of factors, including severity of medical condition and number of patients currently in the ED. To provide appropriate prompt care, patients are seen by order of severity of their condition.

Upon arrival, patients will be screened by ED staff and “split” into those requiring emergent care, intermediate care or minor care. This allows us to provide the most appropriate level of care for your immediate needs with minimal waiting time.

Please remember that completing the level of lab work, advanced imaging, and medical assessment that is provided to you in our department could take weeks via outpatient services. While we can complete a large amount of testing in one visit, it may take several hours for the results to return and be appropriately clinically interpreted and applied to your medical presentation.

Advanced practice providers (APP) include certified registered nurse practitioners (CRNPs) or physician assistants (PAs) who are skilled health care providers that work alongside our physicians to take exceptional care of you. Physicians are available for consultation at all times. Sometimes, our experienced APPs will primarily manage the care of our patients with less severe illness. When the patient’s presentation is more complex, they will hand over care or consult with their supervising physicians.

The emergency department does not accept appointments.

The emergency department is available 24 hours a day for patients who require immediate care. It is not always predictable when it will be busy. Patients are seen primarily in order of severity of illness and also arrival time.

Our goal is to minimize wait times, but by necessity, we must prioritize critically ill patients. As a result, wait times can be longer than we hoped. Extended wait times may also occur when we have unexpected events.

Average wait time for a more complex patient can be 5-6 hours.

Average wait times for an urgent care patient can be 2-3 hours.

The emergency department will refer you to your primary care physician or to a specialist based on an assessment of your problem.

Emergency department patients are seen by physicians with specialized training or experience in the field of emergency medicine. We obtain consultations as needed, based on our assessment of your problems. Consultations are reserved for life-threatening conditions requiring immediate attention. We cannot offer specialist consultations for chronic conditions.

State regulations have limited the availability of medication samples. We generally do not have a supply of samples for patients.

When you receive care from any ED you may receive two bills:

1. One bill is from the hospital, called a facility fee. You may find more information through the hospital billing department.
2. A second bill is from the clinician who provided your care, called a professional fee. If you have any questions regarding your Vituity Professional Fee, please visit our dedicated Vituity billing website.