Services
Mercy Emergency Services
Emergency care has been provided by Mercy Medical Center – North Iowa, since 1908. Since that day, the doors have remained open 24 hours-a-day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year for nearly 100 years.
Mercy Emergency services include:
- Designated Level II trauma center
- Convenient Care
- Mercy Air Life and critical care transport
Our Commitment
- We work together to coordinate your health care.
- We provide equal access to needed health care, without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, age, sex, handicap, or source of payment.
- We honor your privacy and protect the confidentiality of your health care information.
- We respect your personal values, beliefs, and cultural heritage.
Additional services offered in the Emergency Department
-
Chaplains
are available to assist you and your family with religious or spiritual
support upon request. - Interpretation services are available so that we can do our best to provide clear, complete health care information and answer your questions.
Care that Involves You
- If you wish, you may establish written Advanced Directives to provide your health care instructions, appoint a health care agent, or become an organ donor. It is important for you to communicate your advance directives or any changes to your designated health care agent and health care team.
- If you choose, we will involve your family in your care as much as possible.
- If you have a concern or suggestion, we encourage you to tell us in person, by phone or in writing. We will review your comments objectively and address them with you openly and without retribution.
- If you decide to refuse treatment or change your mind about a procedure for which you have given consent, we will respect your decision and inform you of the medical consequences and any options.
- If you choose to change physicians or be moved to another facility, we will do our best to assist you in obtaining care elsewhere whenever possible.
- If you are facing a difficult treatment or care related issue, you and/or your family may consult with the ethics committee if the issue has not been resolved through discussion with your health care team.
Being Treated in Mercy’s Emergency Center
We understand that visiting an Emergency Center can be a frightening and confusing experience. We believe that we can make your experience a better one by explaining certain things about how the Emergency Center operates and what you can expect to happen while you’re here.
Initial
Assessment
When you first come to the Emergency Center you’ll receive a “triage” assessment. A Registered Nurse (RN) will ask you the reason for your visit and take down important information about your medical history, including information about medications and allergies. The Registered Nurse will also measure you vital signs.
The purpose of this triage assessment is to make an initial determination about the nature and severity of your illness or injury. The triage assessment determined the order in which you’ll receive a medical screening examination; it isn’t the actual examination. If after you undergo triage you feel worse, please notify the registration or triage nurse right away. You may then have to be re-triaged.
Medical Information Gathering
After your initial assessment, a clerk will take down the information necessary to being your Emergency Center records. If you don’t require intensive care and aren’t critically ill or injured, this will most likely occur before you receive a medical screening examination.
Medical Screening Examination
As
part of your care, you have the right to have, within the capabilities of
Mercy’s staff, and facilities, an appropriate medical screening examination
preformed by a doctor. The purpose of this medical screening examination
is to determine whether you’re suffering from an emergency medical
condition.
If you’re suffering from an emergency medical condition, you’ll receive whatever treatment Mercy’s staff and facilities have the capabilities to provide that’s necessary to stabilize the condition. If the hospital lacks the capability to stabilize the condition, the hospital will arrange to have you transferred to another facility that does, and you’ll receive stabilizing treatment there. You’ll receive these services even if you cannot pay. You don’t need to have medical insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid coverage to get this help.
Leaving Without Being Seen
If you’ve been waiting a long time, you may feel tempted to leave the Emergency Center before you receive a medical screening examination. You have the legal right to do this. We strongly discourage it. Leaving the Emergency Center without being screened is a serious, perhaps life-threatening, decision that shouldn’t be made out of frustration.
You need to consider that:
- Getting the examination may save your life, and not getting it may endanger your life;
- Getting the examination may prevent your condition from worsening, and not getting it may cause your condition to worsen;
- Going to another facility will likely delay, not speed up, the exam, even if you go directly there. The wait at the other facility may be just as long, if not longer (not counting travel and triage time.)
- Traveling home or to the other facility could cause your condition to worsen.
If you’re still determined to leave, we ask you to notify the clerk or triage registered nurse. You will be given and asked to sign an informed consent when you leave against medical advice.
Director
Paul Leavens, RN
641.422.7019
Medical Director
Matt Schiller, M.D.
East Campus, First Floor
641.422.7234
Manager
Patti Peterson, RN
641.422.7723