Free Standing Emergency Rooms

Specialties Emergency

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I am curious what your opinions are of free standing emergency rooms?

Where I live (suburb of a large metro area), they seem to be popping up on every corner. And they always appear empty....not a car or person in sight.

Have you ever worked in one or been to one as a patient? How do they differ from ERs at the hospital (regarding treatment/ testing capacity)?

Would you go to one in a true emergency if it were much closer than the nearest hospital?

Their name is a misrepresentation.

FLU CLINICS, and first aid stops for scraped knees.

They have a doctor, a CT scanner, and tiny machine for a few labs.

If you are in serious need of life saving medicine and you go to a free standing ER, you probably won't make it.

Instead of ER, they should be called Urgent Care Clinics.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
Their name is a misrepresentation.

FLU CLINICS, and first aid stops for scraped knees.

They have a doctor, a CT scanner, and tiny machine for a few labs.

If you are in serious need of life saving medicine and you go to a free standing ER, you probably won't make it.

Instead of ER, they should be called Urgent Care Clinics.

This is not true of all freestanding EDs. I worked in one in Virginia that had full lab capability and was one of the few (if not only) freestanding EDs with stroke certification. We saved plenty of lives there - STEMIs, strokes, traumas, even a patient we resuscitated after a lightning strike, the only one I have seen come all the way back (very minor memory deficits later). It was a great place to start as a new nurse, and on the edge of a large metro area, so a mix of urban + rural issues, everything from heroin overdoses to legs-vs-tractor. Edited to add: obviously we had a CT scanner, as well as ultrasound, x-ray, and MRI, in addition to the full lab I mentioned.

The freestanding EDs in that particular hospital system are for more robust than an urgent care. Guess it depends on where you live. :)

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Perhaps some of them are robust, but not nearly as robust as a large hospital ED, and many of them are staffed with as little as one RN and one doctor. I'm just saying that for the most part, their name suggest to the public that they are much more than they really are. I strongly believe that they should have a different name than emergency room.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
Perhaps some of them are robust, but not nearly as robust as a large hospital ED, and many of them are staffed with as little as one RN and one doctor. I'm just saying that for the most part, their name suggest to the public that they are much more than they really are. I strongly believe that they should have a different name than emergency room.

Again, this is probably regional. Our ED was staffed by 5-6 RNs, a doc, a PA, and ancillary staff (lab, x-ray, techs, unit secretary, etc.). We had the same capabilities as the hospital ED with which we were affiliated; as a matter of fact, we were staffed by the same physicians group and many of the RNs worked at both locations. We received ambulances. We had a helipad to send out critical patients, and we had a paramedic transport team in house 24x7 for transport for admissions. Perhaps we were a rare bird? Though the other freestanding ED in the hospital system was similar. Maybe the difference is hospital affiliation. Are these that you've seen (which truly sound like a doc-in-a-box with one doc and one nurse) affiliated with hospitals?

I think there should be some fairly stringent minimum criteria these places need to meet to be truly called EDs. Though I've seen some EDs that aren't freestanding and were pretty scary as far as capabilities, but that was mostly in the more rural areas where I used to live.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Their name is a misrepresentation.

FLU CLINICS, and first aid stops for scraped knees.

They have a doctor, a CT scanner, and tiny machine for a few labs.

If you are in serious need of life saving medicine and you go to a free standing ER, you probably won't make it.

Instead of ER, they should be called Urgent Care Clinics.

No it isn't....They are fully licensed and accredited as REAL emergency departments and can get trauma designation. Kind of like the Surgi-centers that cropped up owned by a group of MD separate from the hospital.

Some states have strict legislation about these emergency departments but others do not.

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Pixie, RN. I think that we might have worked for the same hospital system, and I'm happy to say that their freestanding ER's are top notch!

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

My health system has a few. I have used them and have gotten good treatment. They can take care of critical patients and transfer to the hospital. Drips, vents, etc. They do get them to the inpatient ICU by ambulance as quick as possible.

I have had to use the two closest to my house and they have X Ray, US, CT, and MRI, and EKG. I went in and was treated for a broken leg a year ago. Referred to ortho and got in the next day.

I wouldn't go there for a critical illness unless that is where 911 took me to be stabilized.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
Pixie, RN. I think that we might have worked for the same hospital system, and I'm happy to say that their freestanding ER's are top notch!

If it was the system with a "large presence" (i.e., monopoly? haha) in Northern VA, then yep! :D

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