The emergency department is not a "night clinic"! When a sudden illness occurs, you should do this

Author: Ying Jusu, Chief Nurse, Peking University People's Hospital

Reviewer: Wang Lixiang, Chief Physician, Third Medical Center, PLA General Hospital

The 10th Chairman of the Science Popularization Branch of the Chinese Medical Association

With the accelerated pace of life and the increasing aging of society, people are facing more risks of sudden illnesses and acute exacerbations of chronic diseases. However, when facing sudden illnesses, many patients often know little about the emergency treatment process and requirements, which leads to many confusions during the treatment process.

When faced with a health crisis, seeking emergency care becomes critical.

Hospitals usually have outpatient and emergency departments to meet the medical needs of different patients. The emergency department is dedicated to treating patients with critical illnesses and acute trauma, and its setting is to ensure that such patients can receive diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible. So, in what cases should patients go to the emergency department?

First of all, acute trauma, such as car accidents, burns and other accidents, requires emergency treatment. Such situations are often accompanied by severe pain, bleeding, etc., and require immediate treatment. In addition, acute attacks of chronic diseases are also important for emergency treatment. For example, a patient with hypertension has a sharp increase in blood pressure, and a patient with diabetes has hypoglycemia. These situations may endanger the patient's life safety, so they need to be sent to the emergency room for treatment in time.

It is worth noting that some patients may choose to go to the emergency department after get off work at night because they are busy during the day. However, the emergency department is not a "night clinic" and has strict admission scope and regulations. For non-emergency conditions such as chronic diseases, patients should try to go to the outpatient department to avoid occupying emergency resources and affecting the treatment of critically ill patients.

There are significant differences between emergency and outpatient departments in terms of medical procedures, department settings and functional positioning.

In terms of the medical procedure, when emergency patients arrive, the triage nurse will first conduct a simple inquiry and physical examination, and determine the order of treatment according to the severity of the disease. Outpatients need to register first, and then wait for treatment in the order of registration. This difference in process reflects the urgency and efficiency of emergency treatment of critical and severe diseases.

Figure 1 Original copyright image, no permission to reprint

In terms of departmental settings, emergency departments are usually divided into internal medicine, surgery and other departments. Compared with outpatient departments, their departmental settings are relatively broad. Outpatient departments are more detailed, and patients can choose the corresponding department and doctor according to their condition. This difference in departmental settings allows emergency departments to respond to various critical and severe diseases more quickly, while outpatient departments can provide more professional and detailed medical services.

In terms of functional positioning, the emergency department focuses on saving lives and mainly treats patients with acute and critical illnesses and acute trauma. The outpatient department, on the other hand, is an area where general patients see a doctor, with diagnosis and treatment as its main tasks. This difference in functional positioning makes the emergency department and outpatient department have different focuses in medical services, and together they constitute an important part of the modern medical system.

The emergency treatment process usually includes triage, registration, medical consultation, and treatment. For particularly critically ill patients, emergency nurses will shorten the medical history collection and physical examination process as quickly as possible and directly arrange for the patient to enter the emergency room for treatment. At the same time, emergency medical staff will adjust the order of treatment at any time according to the patient's condition to ensure that critically ill patients can receive timely and effective treatment.

When going to the emergency department, patients need to bring necessary documents such as their ID card and medical insurance card for registration and reimbursement. At the same time, patients should go to the emergency department in person because the triage nurse needs to see the patient in person to make a basic judgment. If the patient has previous medical experience and a history of chronic diseases, it is best to bring relevant medical information and prescriptions so that emergency medical staff can have a more comprehensive understanding of the patient's condition.

During the emergency treatment process, patients may encounter a situation where someone who came later than them is treated before them. This is not because the emergency medical staff treat them unfairly, but because they follow the principle of "saving lives first and treating diseases later" and determine the order of treatment according to the severity of the disease. Therefore, patients should understand and cooperate with the work of emergency medical staff and jointly maintain the order of emergency treatment.

Figure 2 Original copyright image, no permission to reprint

For some special cases, such as dog bites and drunkenness, the emergency department also provides corresponding treatment services. Patients bitten by dogs need to go to the emergency department immediately for wound treatment and vaccination and other preventive measures. Drunk patients will receive gastric lavage, infusion and other treatments according to the severity of their illness to promote the excretion of alcohol in the body.

In addition, in order to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, hospitals will set up fever clinics and intestinal clinics. For example, from April to October each year, hospitals in Beijing and other regions will set up intestinal clinics to specifically treat diarrhea patients. Fever clinics and intestinal clinics are also special areas open 24 hours a day, and patients can choose the appropriate treatment method according to their own situation. During the period when the intestinal clinic is not open, patients with acute diarrhea need to go to the emergency department for treatment.