When it comes to health emergencies minutes matter, and the nearest full-service emergency department (ED) may be closer than you think.
On Oct. 1, 2019, Mercy Health opened the Dayton Springfield Emergency Center located at 1840 Springfield Road, Fairborn. The facility sits just off exit 24 along I-675 – just west of Enon – and functions as a full-service emergency center with outpatient imaging and lab services.
The ED is designed to treat patients suffering from a wide range of health issues, including strokes, heart attacks, respiratory distress, head injuries, abdominal pain, sports and orthopedic injuries and more. Patients needing to be admitted to the hospital are treated, stabilized and transported as appropriate.
When in a potentially life-threatening situation, Dr. Rubeal Mann, medical director of Mercy Health – Dayton Springfield Emergency Center, says it’s better to overreact than underreact.
“Often, we see patients in the ED who have waited multiple days with their (symptoms such as) chest pain or speech difficulty,” he says. “Often they can’t decide if they should come in … but that is what we’re here for, and it’s better to let us decide than (the patient) trying to decide themselves. In situations such as strokes and heart attacks, 5-minutes, 10-minutes, 20-minutes, a couple of hours – matter. If they have those symptoms they need to come in as soon as possible because time does make a difference in the outcomes.”
Dr. Mann says that at the onset of the pandemic, people feared that going to the emergency department would expose them to COVID-19.
“There have been studies done on it, and it’s been shown primarily that that is not the case,” Mann says. “We take significant precautions when it comes to protection of providers, nurses, staff and patients. There should not really be a concern from the patient’s standpoint to come the ER for fear of catching COVID.”
Routine and ongoing healthcare management, such as blood pressure checks, bloodwork, and medications, should continue to be managed by the patient’s general practitioner, Mann says. But any significant deviation from their norm or what the patient has routinely seen their doctor for, is a reason to go to an emergency department.
“If there is a significant change in blood pressure for example – up or down – that no longer is routine because it has changed from what they are seeing their doctor for,” he says.
Mann says visiting an urgent care facility is also sometimes appropriate for health concerns, such as sprains, minor burns, or minor illnesses.
“The caveat is certainly (urgent) processes that have shared symptoms,” he says. “Significant deviations from run-of-the-mill cold or sore throat or the patient starts to have associated symptoms should lean toward an ED.”
Mann also says not to be concerned with “what will people think” if your health concern turns out to be non-life threating.
“Don’t make decision based on what you think hindsight will be,” he says. “I would rather them come to us, and we run a number of tests on them and everything looks okay, rather than being at home making the diagnosis themselves that ‘oh its nothing.’”
The emergency department is also equipped to handle mental health emergencies. Mann says all ED physicians are trained to care for acute mental health issues and can provide access to crisis workers all hours of the day.
“If people feel like they are having mental health issues that are affecting them and their loved ones, they are in a crisis,” Mann says. “The ED is a safe place to come, and we can guide where they go from there.”
Though freestanding emergency departments are fairly new in the Springfield area, Mann says they have been around for about a decade. The Dayton Springfield Emergency Center is able to receive EMS patients and also transfer patients who need to be admitted for further services.
The 11,000 square foot Mercy Health Dayton Springfield Emergency Center facility features:
- 10 exam rooms
- Outpatient imaging services for MRI, ultrasound and diagnostic X-ray
- Board-certified ED physicians
- Chest pain center to evaluate emergency cardiac care
- Fast track sports medicine program for sports-related injuries
- Outpatient laboratory open 24/7
For non-acute patients, the door-to-provider time is currently averaging 8 minutes during the last 12 month, which is well under the goal of 30 minutes. For non-acute patients, the overall length of stay is 69 minutes, which is well under the 90-minute goal.
“We have an ER trained physician on site. We are able to do everything there that we do at other locations,” says Mann. “From an emergency standpoint, we can take care of any of the emergency care. It’s not any lesser emergency care than they would get anywhere else, whether it’s something simple or something (urgent).”