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ED visit over 90

Posted By orionwh74

"ED visit over 90"

About: Joondalup Health Campus / Emergency Department

(as a relative),

Family member over 90 was taken to the Joondalup ED department in the evening.

About 5 hours later, my partner decided to take them home.

They are a frail person with cancer that is being managed.

Taken to ED after discussing with family who work in health as concern was eating and drinking little. Opinion was that they likely had become dehydrated. This was effecting their mobility.

A few days latter they had a fall at home. Result ambulance called and to be admitted.

I feel if they had been able to be seen then this may not have occurred.

In my opinion, it is unreasonable to have someone this age wait in what I believe is an uncomfortable, very poorly designed area for usability, for so long.

I believe the cubicles for triage and rego are a poor design as well and have no privacy. More than once I have witnessed struggling in the area, including vomiting and poor hearing.

In addition there is no facility to drop patient with a wheelchair, and have them watch whilst I park the car. The alternative is to call ambulance which takes up those resources unnecessarily. People that require a carer are sometimes more complex than parking car and walking. It seems there's little facilitation for this need.

Having been to ER with different people over the years, quite often I feel the counter staff are not doing much. I believe it would good if they were to give feedback to people waiting. I recall updates are poor to non existent whilst waiting.

It seems the WA Govt has not provided the resources to cope with the volume of people attending.

I do not expect answer, just putting up quickly for reference.

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Responses

Response from Mary Ferrier, Director of Clinical Services, Joondalup Health Campus nearly 2 years ago
Mary Ferrier
Director of Clinical Services,
Joondalup Health Campus

Submitted on 20/05/2022 at 2:54 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 3:05 PM

Dear orionwh74

Thank you for taking the time to let me know of your experience whilst attending the Emergency Department (ED) at Joondalup Health Campus (JHC). Patient stories provide JHC Executive the opportunity to improve health care to our community and guide service improvement.

I am saddened and disappointed to hear that we were not able to meet the needs of your family member when presenting to our emergency department

Unfortunately the hospital has been under severe stress recently with overcrowding and staff sickness. As a result, the emergency department is at capacity at all times with many patients experiencing prolonged wait times for an inpatient bed on the wards. The effect of this is that there are extended wait times for people in the waiting room who cannot be moved into the main department.

All patients who attend the emergency department are assessed and triaged accordingly to their presenting symptoms, with the sickest of patients identified to be seen urgently. The triage and waiting room nurses are there to ensure visibility and an awareness of all patients in the waiting room, in particular patients that may need special consideration, including the elderly and frail, with the aim to get these patients into the department as soon as possible.

I acknowledge that the current emergency waiting area is an open space with very limited private areas. The triage and waiting room area has been designed with the intent of providing clear visibility for the staff at all times to ensure that if any patient collapses or deteriorates, they can be attended to promptly and with ease of access.

I thank you for your suggestion of looking at ways to provide feedback to people in the waiting room. It is important we listen to you as the consumer on suggestions on how to improve our service delivery to the community and as such I will ensure your feedback is provided to the Head of Department and Clinical Nurse Manager of the emergency department for consideration.

JHC Executive endeavour to deliver high-quality patient-centred care and I apologise that this was not your experience with our service,

Kind Regards

Mary Ferrier

Director of Clinical Services

Joondalup Health Campus

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by orionwh74 (a relative)

Addendum

Subsequently, the family member died in hospital within a few days, and a week after not being able to be seen timely at the ED.

There will always be an unanswered question of had the ED been able to cope with the caseload would they have not passed at the time.

The care whilst in hospital as a private patient was excellent, and great staff.

It is disappointing that the WA Govt resourcing, planning and management of ED, public hospitals and health.

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