On sunny days in South Florida we take our health for granted, don’t we?

But when we experience dizziness or chest pain…it’s off to the emergency room. With waits as low as 6 minutes, we’ve come to expect the immediate care at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center. Heck, just the blinking billboards displaying the emergency room wait time is reassuring when you’re counting the minutes.

Just a few short years ago, a trip to the emergency room would mean an hours-long wait. So how did the emergency room change so dramatically?

“We recognized our wait times were stalling our ability to provide effective care and made a commitment to change the process,” said Heather Rohan, CEO of Aventura Hospital and Medical Center.  “We conducted efficiency audits and consulted with Fire Rescue to find every area where we could improve the patient experience. Five years later, our ER routinely sees 170 patients per day, but you would never know it by visiting the waiting room because we created a process where a physician or physician’s assistant conducts rapid medical evaluations at the bedside to expedite care.”

 

Their dedication to improving did not go unnoticed, and Aventura resident Stu Wagner is living proof...literally!

He recounts:

In March 2009, I experienced strong chest pains. Though I had no other symptom and did not think it was a heart attack, I asked my wife to drive me to Aventura Hospital. We illegally parked outside the emergency room and told the receptionist I was having chest pains. Expecting a long wait, my wife went to re-park. Upon returning, I was already undergoing various tests. Within 20 minutes I was on an operating table ready to receive three life-saving stents.

Mr. Wagner is not alone in his praise of the streamlined care:

• David Cohen said, My emergency care was incredible!  Within two minutes of arriving at the emergency room, a physician was examining me and immediately began tests. I can’t stop telling everyone how wonderfully I was treated.

• Aventura Commissioner and Aventura Hospital and Medical Center Board of Trustee Bob Diamond recently received a call that a friend was in transit to the emergency room. Within minutes Comm. Diamond was in the waiting room, but his friend was already in treatment. Comm. Diamond decided to approach people in the waiting room to see how long they were waiting to be seen. To his surprise, not one stated they were a patient; they were the friend or relative of a patient already undergoing evaluation.

In the five years since Aventura Hospital resolved to improve the public perception of emergency care, the emergency team received the EMCARE Genesis Cup. Given to only one hospital per year in the EMCARE network, the national award celebrates the hospital with the most improved processes.

Although the hospital has reason to celebrate, Aventura Hospital and Medical Center refuses to rest on its laurels and continues to research new opportunities for perfecting its emergency room care for the community.  

For more information on emergency care at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, call 305.682.7000 or visit AventuraHospital.com