The unit serves as an area for patients to rest comfortably while awaiting admission to the hospital. Many hospitals nationwide use this approach as a way to ease crowding and improve patient comfort.
“Sometimes a bed isn’t immediately available for a patient who needs to be admitted,” stated Betty Hull, RN, MHA, the emergency department director. “This newly opened area will offer a comfortable, restful area for patients and their families until they receive a room assignment.”
In the coming months, more actions will be taken to increase capacity within the emergency department, including:
— Increasing the number of available beds for patients who need to be monitored by medical staff, but are not being admitted.
— Designating a psychiatric evaluation area, which will provide a separate space where specially-trained caregivers can assess patients and determine the best course of treatment.
— Creating a “lounge” for patients who have been discharged from the hospital, but are waiting to be picked up. This allows beds to be made available for incoming patients.
Antelope Valley Hospital’s emergency room sees more than 130,000 patient visits each year, making it the third-busiest in California. It is also the only trauma center in a 50-mile radius and the only emergency department in the Antelope Valley approved for pediatrics, meaning specially-trained medical staff are on-site at all times to meet the unique needs of children.
[Information via news release from Antelope Valley Hospital.]
–
X-Employee says
Really- creating a “lounge” for patients who have been discharged from the hospital, but are waiting to be picked up. This allows beds to be made available for incoming patients.
THIS HAS BEEN TRIED at AV ALREADY! EPIC FAIL- Another waste of money and approvals by the board, AV hospital is always BEATING A DEAD HORSE!
Until a County Hospital opens and Kaiser Hospital opens nothing is going to get better for AVH !
Tim Scott says
So…until another hospital opens AVH should just sit on their hands? That doesn’t seem very smart. There is no question that a root problem at AVH is that the Antelope Valley is desperately under-equipped in terms of hospitals. But that doesn’t mean that AVH can just sit in a pity party about their situation.
Alexis says
Read the comment you are addressing, again. This has already been tried, and it was an epic fail! Try something different instead of wasting money. This has nothing to do with a pity party situation, this has everything to do with better decision making.
Tim Scott says
I didn’t really take that bit of ranting as sure fire accurate. I’ve picked up a lot of patients from AVH over the years and I never saw such a lounge. Other than this one person claiming to be a former employee and who is apparently disgruntled I haven’t ever heard anything about AVH trying such a thing, even though it does seem like a pretty self evidently good idea.
Dr. Death says
“Antelope Valley Hospital’s emergency room sees more than 130,000 patient visits each year, making it the third-busiest in California.”
I wonder what percentage of the patients are indigent.
michael rives says
The issue of urgent care and emergency care needs to be addressed in the AV. The community clinic and the county clinic on I are packed, so people go to AV Hospital. Unfortunately, this causes undue hardship on persons seeking medical assistance. Patients need to be evaluated and send to urgent care or the ER Dept. This musical chairs is helpful, but not a solution.
You can't handle says
Has it occurred to you that if you have to wait maybe you shouldn’t be there at all? People need to know the difference between urgent and emergency situations, and stop abusing hospitals for scratches and flu
Some Guy says
Your post is giving me a mild headache. I am calling an ambulance.
Alexis says
I will just go to the feed store to buy fish-Cillin.
Some Guy says
And you should – Doctors and veterinarians are against any medicines being available to the public without a prescription because it hits them in the pocketbook. I guess its ok for LA County to euthanize a few hundred dogs a day but its NOT ok to give a dog a flea pill without paying a vet to do it.. because they care so much about that dogs welfare…
Laughing says
It is not so much about giving a pill to a pet. It is what you can do with that pill in other ways that it was not intended for.
Kate says
… the problem is, HMO red tape. Primary care physicians are campus doctors. They don’t have their own private practice. Because they only take patient appointments two days per week, it takes weeks, sometimes a month, getting scheduled for an appointment to see your primary care physician. So, its spills over, into Antelope Valley Hospital’s ER.
Marcia says
… average duration for Antelope Valley Hospital ER patient processing is, 9 hours. The vast majority of AV Hospital ER staff dedicated to data input, data processing, data acquisition, sequential progression through the various stages of treatment, to discharge, is a clumsy, lumpy, herky-jerky phenomena much indicative of an early 20th century assembly line, infrequently stopping, no rhyme or reason, for unknown lengths of time. Of the nine hours typically spent by patients at AV Hospital’s ER, 7/8ths of it is spent scattered about its vast array of lobbies, patients in limbo, sitting in uncomfortable chairs, waiting-waiting-waiting. AV Hospital staff spend more time sitting in their in task chairs, fiddling on their computers than they do, treating patients. Reverting to hard copy, eliminating computers, average duration for Antelope Valley Hospital ER patient processing would be halved, twice over.
You were lucky! says
You were very lucky! Usually the wait is 5 hours or more I hate AV Hospital. I usually will drive an hour to children’s hospital in my experiences they’re more knowledgeable and faster
Ronnie says
I recently had to drive my teenager to Antelope Valley Emergency room. I was pleasantly surprised by the wait.I remember waiting for over 8 hours before for my husband. My teenagers problem was not life threatening so i figured we would be there forever. We had to go at 1am because Kaiser only has urgent care open until 10pm. Of course everything happens after those hours. Anyways , the staff was upbeat,sarcastic, and very thorough. I appreciated the time they put in to easing my teenagers pain. we were in and out in 2 1/2 hours. That is amazing for an emergency room wait. Maybe we were lucky that there wern’t too many serious emergencies coming in after us?