Emergency Care Made Easier
Two new technologies are helping Adventist HealthCare patients who need emergency services.
To help minimize time in the waiting room, patients with non-life-threating conditions now can hold their place in line at the Adventist HealthCare Germantown Emergency Center. Using an online scheduling tool, patients can choose the time and wait comfortably at home until their time as the care team plans for their arrival. Parents with children 17 and under can save a spot at the Pediatric Emergency department at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville.
While emergency teams always prioritize the most critically ill patients as they arrive, the online scheduling tool helps reduce the time that patients in Germantown or parents of children in Rockville will spend in Emergency department waiting rooms.
Enhancing Triage Safety and Consistency
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is helping to enhance the safety and consistency of the triage process at Adventist HealthCare’s three hospitals. Emergency teams at Shady Grove Medical Center, Fort Washington Medical Center and White Oak Medical Center are using a tool called KATE to help verify care plans for patients who are at higher risk or who have more complex conditions.
KATE complements the training and expertise of emergency nurses, supporting and validating their decision-making skills. The technology can analyze symptoms against deidentified historical medical records data and immediately provides information about the appropriate level of care. While KATE assists with triage, the caregiver remains the ultimate decision maker. The hospitals find KATE has many benefits for care teams and patients. The tool can help increase the accuracy of triage and ensure patients receive the right hospital services from the right care teams at the right time.
This enhanced clinical efficiency can help reduce emergency wait times as well as the days patients might spend if they are admitted to the hospital. The technology also helps ensure greater health equity by identifying and eliminating systemic biases in triage, including those based on race, age and gender.
Explore Adventist HealthCare’s nationally recognized emergency services and hold your spot for non-life-threatening care in Germantown or Rockville’s Pediatric Emergency department. Always call 911 in a life-threatening emergency.
