May 10, 2006

24/7 Emergency Doctor Coverage Available At GMC, DeWitt

It’s 2 a.m. and the pain is excrutiating. Maybe it’s another kidney stone, but maybe it’s something else. All you know is, you need help.

At that hour, and at every hour of the day, there is a doctor available in the emergency department at Genesis Medical Center, DeWitt.

Since May 1, the emergency department at Genesis Medical Center, DeWitt has been staffed around the clock, every day, with physicians from Acute Care Inc., of Ankeny, Iowa.  Acute Care  provides emergency department physician coverage for hospitals throughout Iowa.

Jeff Cooper, CEO of Genesis Medical Center, DeWitt said the 24/7 coverage of the emergency room by doctors who often limit their practices to emergency departments will benefit patients and physicians throughout the area served by the hospital.

“In the past, local physicians have been on-call for the emergency room. They could get called away when they had a full waiting room in their office,’’ Cooper explained.  “That wasn’t efficient for the doctors. Patients had to wait for the doctor to return to the office.

“Having 24/7 coverage requires a financial commitment on the part of the hospital, but we think it is important to the patients we serve.  We have already had an efficient emergency department, but having physicians always available will make us even more efficient and quicker in assessing and treating patients.’’

Cooper said Genesis Medical Center, DeWitt already scores in the high 90th percentile in patient satisfaction surveys.

“We think our patient satisifaction will go even higher. What patients will see is a level of consistency as four or five doctors will provide nearly all of the coverage of our emergency room,’’ Cooper said.  “What patients will also notice is that the office of their family practice doctor will be more efficient with fewer long wait times because the doctor is not having to leave the office to cover the hospital emergency department.

“This is very much a win-win for everyone. In the future, we may see doctors who cover our emergency department deciding to move to the community.’’

Enhancements of emergency services at the DeWitt hospital have been one of the positive outcomes of the 1997 affiliation with Genesis Health System.

A $7 million building project completed in 2000 has positioned Genesis Medical Center, DeWitt to provide compassionate, quality health care well into the future.  Among the improvements are an expanded and refurbished emergency room and a new Picture Archiving Communication System that has replaced traditional x-ray films with digital images that are accessed by computer.

Last year, the Genesis Medical Center, DeWitt emergency room received re-verification as a Level 4 Community Trauma Center.