What to Expect in the
Emergency Department

If you haven’t been to an emergency department (ED), you may not know what to expect.

Upon arrival
A nurse will see you to triage (“tree-ahj”) the severity of your condition. The triage nurse determines which patients need to be seen first. Patients are evaluated and treated based on how ill or injured they are, not on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the exam room
A nurse will ask you additional medical questions and perform a general exam. A physician also will ask you about your condition and perform an exam. The physician or nurse may order tests to learn more about your illness or injury or prescribe medication to start treatment.

Testing
Some tests are complex and getting the results may take about two hours. Once the results are available, a physician will review them with you and discuss diagnosis and treatment options.

When it’s time to leave
You will leave with information on how to care for yourself, how to take your medications, if necessary, and the name of a physician to follow up with after your visit. If you are too ill or injured to return home, you will be admitted to the hospital or transferred to another hospital.

Understanding wait times
The amount of time you spend in the ED will depend on the severity of your illness or injury and the treatment you need. Because Salem Hospital is a trauma hospital, patients with life-threatening conditions will be treated first.

Typically, the ED is busiest between 2 and 11 p.m., and the busiest days are weekends and Mondays. When the hospital is full, such as during flu season, it can take a bit longer if a patient in the ED needs to be admitted to the hospital, which will add to the wait times for everyone in the ED.

Thank you for your patience
With more than 100,000 patients using the Salem Hospital urgent care and emergency department each year, we are the busiest in the state. During the past several months, we have mastered a new electronic-medical-record system. Using this, we have made significant improvements in how we do our daily work—to help you get treated and back to your daily routine as quickly as possible.