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Care Opinion

Being informed in ED

Posted By sagittaqe88

"Being informed in ED"

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital / Emergency Department

(as the patient),

I arrived 12. 30am by ambo. 1am one registered nurse and doctor look at holiday pics for 10mins. The only staff I saw. No signs to toilets. No pillow or blanket offered while I waited patiently and quietly. 2am I was weary. Nurse took vitals. Short curt responses from me about why I was there. Not rude or abusive to nurse though. Nurse said are you inpatient? I said I'm tired is all. 3am I go online to book appt with my GP. My beef? ...3 admin staff sat on their backsides and could have given me info about toilets and that staff were busy 'tonight'. ED staff should let admin know non-emergency patients, 3hr waiting should go to their GP. ...Medical staff wonder why people get annoyed waiting. I feel FSH not organised at all. Give paramedics their own bays to assist people, as we get clarity and are informed of what's going on.... I believe this is a waste of tax payers money.

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Responses

Response from Neil Doverty, Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group, South Metropolitan Health Service 5 years ago
Neil Doverty
Executive Director Fiona Stanley and Fremantle Hospitals Group,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 21/02/2019 at 6:27 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 22/02/2019 at 10:24 AM

picture of Neil Doverty

Dear sagittaqe88,

Thank you for your feedback about the Emergency Department (ED) at Fiona Stanley Hospital. It seems from your description of events there was a lack of clear communication on our part. Without your specific details, I cannot investigate the matter, but would be happy to do so if you contact us via phone 6152 4013 or email FSHFeedback@health.wa.gov.au.

By way of explanation I can advise, there is signage to the toilets on the door and on the wall. In addition, two digital information boards in the adult waiting room display current wait times of all EDs in Perth. Further patient information is displayed on the TVs and in poster format.

In terms of clerical staff, there is not normally three designated clerical staff on night triage. This has been fed back to the clerical supervisor to address and while the ED does not advocate the use of personal devices while on duty, staff do access clinical applications on their mobile phones to advise on clinical decisions. We apologise for the perception of lack of care.

Upon arrival via ambulance to the ED, a triage nurse makes a clinical assessment whether a patient is safe to sit in the waiting room, ideally freeing St John Ambulance paramedic crews to respond to other '000" calls. St John Ambulance do have designated spaces, however, these spaces will have been full at this time with patients requiring a stretcher under the care of ED nursing staff waiting to access ED.

While patients wait in ED, a triage nurse reassesses patients to ensure the patients presenting complaint has not deteriorated, as per department protocol. A clinical assessment is advocated by staff if a patient requires further comfort measures in the waiting room, and we should have offered these, for which I apologise. Thank you for taking the time to share your story.

Kind regards

Neil Doverty

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