Understanding Priority Care in Corbin
Baptist Health Corbin: Understanding Priority Care
Baptist Health Corbin uses emergency room triage (acuity) levels to determine the order in which patients are seen.
Understanding Priority Care HealthTalks Transcript
Melissa Haddix, DO, Emergency Room Medical Director:
When you come to the ER, really it should be for a life-threatening condition. We will see anyone who walks through those doors, but at the same time, the ER is meant to save your life. If you think you need to come, come, because we will see you. Just try not to get frustrated with us, because we try to treat everybody like we would want our family treated.
Rhonda Thornton, RN, Emergency Care:
All patients are important here at Baptist Health Corbin, but you are treated according to your acuity level, and acuity level can range from one to five — one meaning that you need immediate intervention. If you have a diagnosis of chest pain, you’ll be taken right back into the triage area, and an EKG will be performed. If you come in for an earache, you may be asked to sit in the lobby and wait for a few minutes, because a person’s chest pain is more serious than an earache.
Dr. Haddix:
This ER is probably one of the busiest ERs I’ve been in. We see about 46,000 patients a year. So, it’s about 136 patients a day. We have 15 beds in the main side and we have 12 in the fast track. We see a lot of sick people, and I just can’t imagine how this community would suffer if we did not have this facility. The good thing about Baptist Health Corbin is that the physicians are invested in the community. They’re from the community, they want to give back to the community, and they want to treat patients as family. That means a lot.
