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
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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
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