Greater Sudbury Paramedic Services use<\/a>, allowing for clearer dialogue between medical professionals.<\/p>\nEMS are typically able to give HSN at least five minutes\u2019 heads up that a patient is coming, whereas patients coming in the door without notice might leave them scrambling.<\/p>\n
The following is a brief description of each CTAS level:<\/p>\n
\n\tLevel 1: Life-threatening \u2013 Your heart has stopped or you\u2019ve experienced life-threatening trauma
\n\tLevel 2: Emergency \u2013 You have symptoms of a heart attack or stroke, not conscious, having a lot of trouble breathing, or bleeding severely
\n\tLevel 3: Urgent \u2013 You have a head injury, deep cut, chest pain (unrelated to known heart issue), serious infection, urgent mental health concern
\n\tLevel 4: Less urgent \u2013 You have a sprain or break, cuts, pain in back, arm or legs
\n\tLevel 5: Not urgent \u2013 You have a sore throat, ear infection, minor cuts or bumps, prescription refill
<\/p>\n
Although there are five levels, Middaugh contends there should be 1-100, since no two patients present exactly the same within a wide range of human well-being.<\/p>\n
The majority of people in the emergency room are CTAS 2 and 3, he said.<\/p>\n
Although patients can typically expect hours-long waits, depending on CTAS level, Middaugh also clarified that treatment begins as soon as people enter the building.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have initiated blood work, initiated some kind of other diagnostic test like an ECG for someone having chest pains or difficulty breathing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients typically get those tests initiated and started within typically 15 minutes after they\u2019ve been triaged,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can be triaged relatively low, and then you get that ECG (Electrocardiogram) and all of a sudden you\u2019ve gone from a CTAS 3 to a CTAS 1 because of something we see something on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a similar front, patients who notice a change in their condition should reach out to a triage nurse as soon as possible to be re-evaluated to see whether they should be seen earlier.<\/p>\n
With long wait times also comes the question of whether everyone in the emergency department should be there and whether some patients might be better suited for walk-in clinics or to wait for an appointment with their family doctor.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a medical professional, it\u2019s easy for me to assess myself,\u201d Middaugh said. \u201cIt\u2019s not always easy for someone who doesn\u2019t have that knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reluctant to tell anyone not to go to the emergency department, since physicians will see and treat anyone, there are some things Middaugh said patients should consider.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it feels like the usual common cold or something that you would normally have called a family doctor for and accepted waiting a few days to see your family doctor, you probably don\u2019t need to come to the emergency department,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One resource people can use to help them determine where to go is the 811 Health Connect Ontario<\/a> phone line, which connects callers to a registered nurse 24\/7.<\/p>\nFor those who do attend the emergency department, Middaugh said long waits are an ongoing reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know you’re waiting a long time, and everyone in our department is working hard to see patients as fast as we possibly can,\u201d he said. \u201cTry to be kind and patient.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Sciences North online emergency department online wait time estimates aren\u2019t necessarily reflective of how long patients…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,176832,84,392],"class_list":["post-422154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-emergency-department-wait-timeshealth-sciences-north-emergency-department-wait-timeshsn-emergency-department-wait-times","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}