Emergency care

We want you to feel as comfortable as possible in our care. To help us reach this goal, our ER features:

• Advanced patient monitoring equipment
• Behavioral health services
• Comfortable treatment rooms
• Separate entrances and waiting rooms for adult and pediatric patients
• Trauma resuscitation rooms
• State-of-the-art technology, allowing:
  • Emergency physicians who regulate a patient’s body temperature during a stroke or major brain event
  • Neurologists to immediately assess a patient during neurological emergencies
  • Patients to receive many cardiac test results and metabolic panels in minutes
  • Psychiatrists to immediately assess a patient during psychiatric emergencies

We are proud to serve the Northeast Florida community with four convenient emergency room locations throughout the First Coast. In addition to our main emergency department, we provide the greater Jacksonville and St. Johns areas with emergency care for patients of all ages at these locations:

• Atlantic Emergency
• Julington Creek Emergency
• Mandarin Emergency

Our emergency medical staff can quickly diagnose strokes and perform lifesaving care. For this, The Joint Commission recognizes our hospital as a Primary Stroke Center.

Heart attack treatment

Our emergency physicians provide prompt, effective heart attack treatment. Our team works quickly to diagnose symptoms and restore proper blood flow to the heart.

Pediatric emergency care

Staffed by specially trained pediatric emergency physicians and nurses, our kid-friendly emergency department treats serious injuries and illnesses, including heart issues and respiratory infections.

Our facility features child-friendly artwork and special lighting to provide the most comfortable experience possible. We also provide:

• A separate entrance and waiting room for pediatric patients
• Kid-friendly examination rooms
• Large, private exam rooms equipped with touch-screen tablets
• Pediatric resuscitation rooms to care for critically ill patients
• Specially designed pediatric equipment, including cardiac monitors and ventilators

Emergency care for traumatic injuries

We have a Level II Trauma Center. It offers:

• Comprehensive, multidisciplinary care for critically injured patients
• 24/7 availability of our trauma team, which includes:
  • Ear nose and throat (ENT) doctors
  • Neurosurgeons
  • Ophthalmologists
  • Oral and plastic surgeons
  • Orthopedic doctors
  • Radiologists
  • Surgeons

When it comes to emergency care, our goal is to continually work toward enhancing the care you receive, while reducing our wait times. This ensures you get the care you need, when you need it most.

Our wait times are updated every 30 minutes and are available on our website.

To find out the wait times of the HCA Florida emergency room nearest to you, check the top of our website or text "ER" to 32222.

Note: Message and data rates may apply. Emergency room wait times are approximate and provided for informational purposes only.

We want you to feel secure about your choice for care, which is why we've created a list of symptoms that may indicate you need to visit the emergency room:

• Back pain, when it is unbearable or accompanied by fever, numbness, weakness, confusion, slurred speech, vision loss or loss of control over bladder or bowels
• Broken bones, when the pain is severe or there is a visible deformity
• Chest pain, when it is crushing or squeezing and accompanied by other heart attack symptoms, such as shortness of breath or nausea
• Concussion, when you have lost consciousness, even briefly, or experience amnesia, vomiting, slurred speech or a seizure
• Flu, when symptoms become severe, such as having trouble breathing, vomiting uncontrollably or becoming dehydrated
• Side pain, when it is severe and occurs in the lower right stomach, side or back or is accompanied by fever, nausea, diarrhea or blood in the urine
• Stomach pain, when accompanied by a hard or tender stomach, nausea, shortness of breath, fever or irregular heartbeat
• Trouble breathing, when breathing stops, is noisy or high-pitched and comes with pain in the chest or severe shortness of breath

If you are unsure if your symptoms require an emergency room visit, you can speak to a nurse 24/7 by calling our Consult-A-Nurse line.

What to expect at the emergency room

When you get to the emergency room, one of our triage nurses will assess your symptoms and vital signs. Next, a registration clerk will collect your insurance card (if available) and other information.

We medically screen, evaluate and stabilize all patients — whether or not they have insurance or are able to pay.

Anyone who has severe, life-threatening illnesses or injuries will be treated first. Everyone else will be treated in the order they arrive.

Before discharge, we encourage you to ask our emergency care teams any questions you have. It is also useful for you to keep all of your paperwork, discharge information and medicines or prescriptions together after you leave the emergency room.

What to bring to the emergency room

When coming to the emergency room, we recommend you bring:

• A list of medicines you currently take
• A list of known allergies
• Copies of results from recent medical tests, if available
• Personal care preferences and restrictions
• A responsible adult or phone number for someone to contact