In many busy EDs — especially those in the city — people with less serious conditions (such as pain, coughs or sore throat) often spend hours waiting, as those with much more serious issues are taken in for treatment. To help these “low acuity” patients get the help they need — and on a much faster basis — HUP has opened the ED Fast Track.
Located on Ground Dulles, in the former site of the Psychiatric Emergency Evaluation Center (PEEC), Fast Track’s five rooms offer standard “urgent-care” tests, for example, blood work and x-rays, and treatments, with minimal waiting, helping people get “access to safe, quality care,” said Paul Harrington, MSN, MBA, associate executive hospital director, who led the initiative to create Fast Track. Nurses will still triage every person who comes into the ED to determine their level of illness. Those with less serious conditions will be sent to Fast Track, which is a nurse-practitioner-led model.
At the official opening, Benjamin Sun, MD, chair of Emergency Medicine, thanked those involved in this “major turning point for ED operations,” adding that it will help take HUP’s main ED to the next level.