Express Care Emergency Service Available at West Hospital

Mercy Health – Cincinnati, which provides advanced, compassionate, quality care in your neighborhood through its care network, announces that an express care program launched recently in the emergency room at West Hospital is delivering strong results in key measures. These include patient satisfaction and the length of time it takes for patients with less serious issues to receive treatment and leave the emergency room. West Hospital is located at 3300 Mercy Health Blvd. in the Monfort Heights neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio 45211.

Emergency rooms are busy places, with care teams treating everyone from the person who’s having a heart attack to the patient with a badly sprained ankle. In different staffing models, patients with less pressing conditions might wait as more emergent cases requiring immediate attention took priority but West Hospital’s express care program is changing that.

Available currently from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, the busiest times in this emergency department, the express care service employs a dedicated provider, nurse and emergency department technician. In a six-bed space reserved solely for the express care team’s use, the team treats patients ages two to 75 for a specific set of conditions including cuts, upper respiratory issues and simple orthopaedic concerns such as strains and sprains. The express care team treats 40-50 patients per day.

“Since launching express care services on May 1, we have achieved our goal of treating and discharging express care service patients within 90 minutes. We’ve seen patient satisfaction rates rise by 10 points in that same period,” says Beth Pierce, DNP, MSN, BA, RN, NEA-BC, director of emergency services at West Hospital. “Express care has also relieved pressure in the emergency room, positively affecting the overall length of stay of patients with more serious issues. The staff loves the express care program and says it’s had a tremendous positive impact on the department.”