Cortlandt Manor, NY - Hudson Valley Hospital Center (HVHC) was chosen from among thousands of hospitals in the United States, Europe and around the world to present at the International Conference on Emergency Medicine in Dublin last month.

 

Dr. Ron Nutovits, Chairman of Emergency Medicine at HVHC, presented a paper on the Hospital’s no-wait Emergency Department at the International Conference on Emergency Medicine from June 27 to 30 at the Convention Centre in Dublin. HVHC was the first in the region to open a no-wait Emergency Room in 2005. Also presenting on behalf of the hospital were its President John C. Federspiel and Clinical Nurse Manager Donna Rosenberg.

 

“We were very proud to receive international recognition on our No-Wait ER, which has shown consistent increases in growth in patient visits due to the high quality, compassionate care provided through the no-wait approach” said Federspiel.

Dozens of Emergency Medical professionals from around the world including Japan, South Africa, Australia and Europe spoke on topics ranging from treatment of Japanese tsunami victims to violence against women at South African trauma centers. ICEM is the conference of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM) - a global association of Emergency Medicine professionals. This is the 14th conference, which takes place every two years.

Hudson Valley Hospital Center’s presentation discussed the hospital’s journey in converting to a no-wait emergency room in 2005 and discussed the benefits such as reducing overcrowding and improving quality of patient care. It also discussed the staffing and organization needed to successfully manage a no-wait emergency department.  Wait times for patients dropped 30 percent within one year of opening the no-wait ER at HVHC in 2005 and have continued to drop to 60 percent from 2005 to 2012. HVHC discharges ER patients in a third of the average national time, and has one of the highest volume ERs in the New York-metro area, experiencing a 30 % increase in patient volume in 6 years. More than 40,000 patients passed through HVHC’s ER in 2011.