Appropriate Use of the Emergency Room
Emergency Room services are available 24 hours per day, seven days per week at hospitals in Hudson Bay, Kelvington, Melfort, Nipawin, Porcupine Plain and Tisdale. Many of the people that come to the Emergency Room are in urgent need of medical help, sometimes facing life and death situations. For this reason, wherever possible, it is very important that emergency rooms are used for urgent and emergent situations.
For your own health & safety, call 9-1-1 in the event of a health care emergency. Ambulance personnel are equipped to handle medical emergencies and get you to the best place to manage your care.
When you arrive at the hospital, you will be asked for your Provincial Health Card for registration. A Registered Nurse will assess your condition to determine the severity of your illness or injury. Patients with the most urgent need will be seen first.
If you have a cough or flu-like symptoms, you will be required to put on a mask and you may be asked to sit in an area designated to separate patients who may have infectious symptoms from those who do not. These precautions are taken in an effort to reduce the spread of influenza and other infectious diseases.
At any time, if you feel your condition has become worse since your arrival at the Emergency Room, notify ER staff immediately.
Conditions Requiring Emergency Care
Visitors to the Emergency Room are seen on the basis of the urgency of their situation, not their time of arrival.
EMERGENT: requires immediate medical attention due to a condition that is considered life-threatening such as symptoms of heart attack, stroke or serious injury.
URGENT: requires treatment within a few hours to prevent a condition that may have come on suddenly from worsening.
NON-URGENT: a medical condition that may have been experienced for a period of time that does not require emergent/urgent care. These visitors may be asked to wait while more urgent patients receive treatment; to return at a different time; or to make an appointment with a physician or nurse practitioner at a medical clinic.
SCHEDULED/FOLLOW-UP: your doctor has asked you to come to the ER for a procedure or test or you have been asked to return to reassess a previous treatment. You will be seen as time permits.
HealthLine 811
If you are unsure whether or not your condition requires immediate or emergency care, call HealthLine at 811. HealthLine is a confidential, 24-hour health information and support telephone line. It is staffed
