The OKEU Hospital, responding to complaints over patient care delays at its Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department, has been explaining the operational procedure.
The explanation came during a town hall meeting in Babonneau on Wednesday.
Dexter James, the Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Heights Medical Complex (MHMC), of which the OKEU Hospital is part, addressed the issue.
He disclosed that the A&E Department sees about 1,500 patients monthly and categorises them according to an Emergency Severity Index (ESI).
James used the example of several patients who entered the hospital as follows:
- A patient with runny nose at 9:30
- A patient with an upset stomach at 10:15
- A patient at 10:50 with an all-day excruciating headache whose primary care doctor advised her to go to the hospital
- At 11:30, a patient with an abdominal stab wound
- At noon, a motor vehicle accident patient
James said medical interventions would have been occurring in the A&E department when those patients arrived.
“So help me here. Which one you think should go first?” the MHMC CEO asked his audience.
After individuals gave various opinions, James explained that in the triage, the vehicle accident was life-threatening.
As a result, he said the vehicle accident victim would need immediate attention, followed by the stab wound patient whose profuse bleeding would also be deemed life-threatening.
Regarding the patient with the excruciating headache, James said the medical staff would not know whether the cause was intracranial bleeding or a stroke prelude.
He said the hospital would attend to that patient next.
However, regarding the patients with the runny nose and the upset stomach, James said they should not be at the A&E Department.
Nevertheless, he said that because they sought medical attention, the OKEU Hospital would have to attend to them.
“The upset stomach next and finally the runny nose who came in at 9:30,” the CEO explained.
“Now, observe what has happened, and this is where we run into a lot of problems,” he said.
According to James, the runny nose and upset stomach patients who came in earliest believe they should have received medical attention.
But he explained that those patients would have had to remain longer because their conditions were not life-threatening.
In this regard, James said people need to better understand the system.
That Is A Dumabass
Uselesss Excuse James
Papishow
Yu Suppose To Have Enough Staff And Procedures In Ways To Not Make Ppl Sit Down Suffering
The Nurses Can Run Test While The Doctors Attend To Life Threatening Patients
Yall Have No Compassion Whatsoever
No Empathy
If Yall Watched Greys Anatomy Or Good Doctor Yall Would Have Been Running A Much Better Hospital The Fact Is Sir That Excuse Is BS
Do You Even Sleep Properly?
@Ihateithereinsaintlucia. You are an idiot. Tell me which hospital you have gone to (A&E) and they do not prioritize. Certainly not England and definitely not the US. And by the way, they have so much more money than we do. At one time I visited the A&E department, in the US, to have stitches removed. I got there minites to nine in the morning and left minutes to five in the afternoon. I never saw the doctor. I removed the stitches myself.
You hate it here so much…but you have blinders on which obscure your vision. So, do your intellect a favour and look up any A&E department in ANY hospital in ANY part of the world (search engines like Bing.com or Google.com), and search for their operational procedures, then tell us how those procedures differ materially from what was explained by OKEU in this article.
The problem with Saint Lucia IS SAINT LUCIANS… because tunnel vision provides the eyes with an illusion of greener grass across the way while befouling the land where the feet are planted.
people educate yourselves and pass on education to the younger generation, read, watch informative documentaries not soap operas, and learning how to terk and look good for carnival. Saint lucia is a small island, we do not have as much resources as the bigger countries, we are not a rich country with alot of natural resources that we can use to develop the country. we have a hospital in the south that politicians eat 80% of the funding for and is yet to finish and provide proper care for the south. Alot of the nurses and doctors are seeking higher paying jobs in the bigger countries, we have massive brain drain in the health sector. We are limited to Cuban nurses and doctors and if we don’t get that help we are screwed and you’ll will bawl alot more about waiting to be attended to. Stop thinking that Saint Lucia is those bigger countries with All the help they ever need . Alot of those people going to OKEU should be at the polyclinics but refuse to go there and instead come to the hospital to Increase in the amount of patients that A&E nurses , doctors etc will need to attend to. And no one every wants to Wait, everyone wants to leave seconds after they get there. every one wants to cut across other people and complain when they came in late, found others waiting. Educate yourselves. Or find money and go to the bigger countries for health care and wait the same amount of time as in saint lucia, then come back home and talk about rapid resonse. JUST UNREALISTIC
I am an American citizen. Triage of patients in the emergency room occurs at every hospital in our country exactly as is described here. The most critical patients are seen first, as we would all want to be if in that situation. Sometimes people with non life-threatening conditions have to wait a long time as a result. What your hospital ER may be lacking but may want to add is a an adjacent clinic or urgent care office to which patients with routine conditions are diverted from the emergency room where they do not belong. The best case scenario would be for those routine patients to call their own doctor or clinic and not present to the hospital because, while they need medical attention, they do not require the facilities of an emergency department. Here urgent care centers are often staffed by nurse practitioners who are quite capable of handling minor medical issues as described in this article, as are your nurses.
I can’t think of one major hospital that doesn’t practice triage. Anyone who knows an iota about emergency rooms, knows it involves long waiting times upon arrival. Triage is even used on battlefields for ambulance transportation.
I hope more people join the movement. Our goal is initiate an IQ test before keyboards are issued on electronic equipment. Sigh!
james i agree there is a system but stop coming and talk crap there to justify yall actions, ALL Patients should be treated in a timely manner, not because the person comes in with a runny nose or a upset stomach that means they have to spend the entire day there.
As a matter of fact since the runny nose and the upset stomach is not life threatening they in turn would not take time to be addressed therefore someone should see to them and get them out in a hurry. As a matter of fact people with a ruptured appendix have pain in their stomach and as soon as they reach at the hospital the doctor immediately send them to operate on them so wasn’t that life threatening? sometimes the person has a ruptured appendix and they dyeing in the waiting room there cause yall never attended to them to see exactly what they have.
If its a situation where yall are under pressure and lack of staff which you most likely dont want to say i can understand this procedure but if you have staff attend to the people and send them about their business. Further yall know this happens on a daily basis why is it yall dont have a section for non life threatening? for example the person with a runny nose, if thats what they have another department should attend to that person and not have them sitting the entire day. I am basically not saying they should not prioritize cause after all its an A/E department but people have to be waiting to long to be attended to.
Here is the big picture – folk would rather seek medical attention at an Emergency Room or as St. Lucia calls in A&E because of financial reasons. Some situations warrant a physician visit and not an Emergency Room visit – but folk believe they can get over with the bill if they visit an Emergency Room – it happens everywhere in the world.
By the way – removing stiches is not considered emergent for an emergency room. I work in Emergency Medicine – there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that the public is not aware of. In addition, because I deal with medical insurance carriers – here is an example — if an Emergency Room bills the insurance company for removal of sutures/stitches the insurance will deny payment to the institution and state that this did not warrant an emergency visit (not life threatening) or it does not fall into the classification of emergency. You should follow up with your primary care physician for this. You see insurance carriers have classifications of what warrants emergency room visits and hospitals are paid when they meet the criteria.
Basically an emergency room should be utilized for medical issues which can not wait and must be addressed sooner than later. Some folk tend to use it as a clinic – don’t you guys have a health center?????
However, I am not certain that an excruciating headache would not at least be evaluated to rule out – potential disastrous neuro conditions – just saying. In addition, an asthmatic in respiratory distress would also need to be address expeditiously… just saying.
People please conduct your own research to understand how systems work. Godspeed
As I always say, and think … let the professionals do what they KNOW they have to do. Who are WE, the lay people to know WHAT to prioritise? That is the emergency personnel’s job; they have the training and expertise – we don’t!!
To the first commenter: @Ihateithereinsaintlucia … please sit down!!
Years ago, I was rushed to the A&E at Victoria for severe abdominal pains I had never felt before. Fortunately when I got there, the place was literally empty, and was given instant attention. As soon as my malady was diagnosed (acute gastroenteritis). I was put on a drip and put on a bed for the IV fluid to do it’s “do” … then: ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!! Accident victims, gun shot victims, stabbing victims, drug overdose victims – you name it – were coming in fast and furious through the doors. The triage became a den of noise and mayhem!! I felt so lucky, even to the point where I thought I was forgotten on the bed. I got to VH around 9PM, and was “released” around 3AM. After that episode, I gained HUGE RESPECT for the triage nurses and doctors. You see, one has to BE IN THE S**T to know what goes on in the triage.
Not all stomach pain should be look at nothing I came in with one left me for hours unattend almost cause me my life if not for me talking .