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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1990)
COMMUNITY Sacred Heart upgrades emergency room care Trauma care center listed among the state’s best By Don Peters Emerald Associate Edao' The image of .111 emergent \ room is one of < onstant drama Seen on countless television shows and in movies, the emer gency rtMitn lias liet nine .1 (jl.it e where debtors and nurses en gage in a continuous struggle to save lives in the real world, it's not quite that vva\ Trauma cane to lie sure, has some of those qual ities hut the business of saving lives is often routine and high Iv organized. Sacred Heart (amend llospi tal in Kugene is one of the most respected trauma care centers in Oregon, a reputation gained largely b\ people like Tim I lerrmunn R N and Hr Phil Johnson Thr two art' opposite sutes of the same coin Herrmann. 12. is the trauma nurse coordina tor. the administration side of the emergent v room Johnson. -4H. is one of nine Sacred Heart entergencv room doctor Herrmann came to hugene a \c ar ago from Queen's Medic al Center in Honolulu. Hawaii He was given the job of organizing Sacred Heart's emergency room "We wanted to standardize our svstem he said "We wanted to find the liest wavs to get the host outcome We were verv fortunate to have all the resources in place so we or ganized and streamlined things In 1985, the Oregon legisla tore passed a hill rec|uinng a state wide trauma svstem Smu* then. many hospitals —in eluding Sacred Heart-have un dergone renovations and up grades of their emergency rooms. "We increased the amount of built-in training, Herrmann said, adding that the "stream lining" has paid off resulting in a Level 2 categorization for the Sacred Heart emergency room Only Oregon Health Si i ernes University and Emman uel Hospital both in Portland, are ranked higher Herrmann said Sa< red Heart will pruhahlv never get a Level t rating liecause it la< ks the spiiti ior .in active research fa i lilts and doesn't have the vol ume to justify a 24-hour, on site emergency room surgeon "The level of care is the same (between Level I and Level You can say many tilings about Macintosh. But "I can't afford it” is no longer one of them. You can lalk about how simple the Apple' Macintosh* computer is to use Or how it can think the w .is v<hi think ()r how compatible it is with other computers But think again w hen the word 'expensive' comes to mind Because’it s lust not tnie an\ more Introducing the Macintosh Classic computer It s the most affordable Mac intosh, yet it has all the capabilities you need to handle basic applications sue I as word processing and spreadsheet analysts The Classk is .1 completely integrated Macintosh system Its monitor, keyboard, mouse and system softwaa* are all included, as are extras you might not expect—suc h as built-in networking and the Apple SuperDnve'disk drive, which lets tin- Classic read from and w rite to MMX)S.OS 2. and ProlX)S* files Mop in todav We II show you how it s I'Hts'- ble for nearly anyone to affonl a Macintosh Comfortable Microcomputer Support Lab 202 Computing Center .Monday-Friday 9am-5pm 346-4402 Tim Herrmann, R.N. I)r. Phil Johnson 2)." Herrmann said. "We al wavs have .1 surgeon within IT) minutes ul the hospital " Though the state had tried to regulate trauma 1 are Herrmann said neither the state nor the federal government provides any sort of funding for emer gency rooms Sacred Heart, a private not-for-profit hospital, lias had to foot the hill itself Trauma will always be here. Herrmann said "We're continuing to push forward We hope eventually, there will lie federal funding for trauma < enters It's expensive and a lot of the patients don't have in surance i’art of (Sacred Heart's) philosophy is to pro vide c are no matter what lohnson is a rarity among emergency room doctors He's tieen in the* field for 15 years; something few of his peers 1 an sav Burnout from the high stri'ss load is common "hmergenc \ room work is fast-paced." lohnson said, ac knowledging the stress in solved "You're dealing with a lot of tilings in a hurrv It’s dif ferent from family medic me I haven't cpnl vet. licit there is .1 high burnout rate lohnson tried famih practice after graduating from mad sc hool but found the life of .111 emergenc \ room doc tor more appealing "It would be hard to go hue k to family practice." he said " There vuu have to do a lot of unexciting things In the past few vears. tin’ workload of a emergency room doc tor has gotten easier, lohn son said. Improved techniques and a team concept have con tributed to shorter work hours, meaning better-trained doc tens "They've made a lot of c hanges over the years." John son s.tiil "Thin have new skills and ideas The nature ol the work is stressful, but the hours have become easier I used to be constantly off-kil ter." Johnson normally works in to 17 shifts a month. 10-11 hours at .1 time That translates to a little more than the average 40-hour work week "We work hard, hut we have defined work times." he said "There's no continuous re spnnsibility When we leave our shift, we leave it behind. " An ini reased staff size as well as the "team" concept has i hanged trauma care in the hist levs years "It's nil er to have more peo ple." Johnson said "If you don't have people there when \ou need them, things can go wrong. As iar as drawbai ks to being an emergency room physician. Johnson said the fast pace and patients' attitudes have a lot to do i\ itI) the stress level "There's a lot of volume." lie said "You have |o see a lot of people in a short amount ot time That's stressful "During the night shift, some ol the patients aren’t fun Some ot them are drunk, and the 1 he havior compromises the care they get Hut it any thing goes wrong, it s your fault not theirs." Hut pressure is part of the business as well as death Sometimes no matter what a doctor does, a patient dies "You don't dwell on it. Johnson said You do the best you can with each case The main thing is to keep perspei live of what you can and can t do. and know you c an do only so much in the emergency room LETTER PERFECT Graphics • TVPtSiTTINC • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPISITTING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPISITTING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPI SIT TING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPISITTING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPISITTING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPISITTING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPISITTING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPISITTING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT • TYPISITTING • PASTI-UP • LAYOUT DISIGN • CONSULTATION • LAYOUT • DISIGN ' CONSULTATION • LAYOU1 • DISIGN • CONSULTATION • LAYOUT • DISIGN • CONSULTATION • LAYOUT • Of SIGN • CONSULTATION • LAYOUT • DlSIGN • CONSULTATION • LAYOUT • 01 SIGN • CONSULTATION • LAYOUT • DISIGN • CONSULTATION > LAYOUT • DISIGN • CONSULTATION • LAYOUT • DESIGN • CONSULTATION • LAYOUT • *• •- - 346-4381