Emergency care
Emergency care is the treatment of unexpected, severe medical injuries or infections. It is typically delivered in an emergency room or an ambulance. Our emergency medicine physicians stabilize your condition as quickly as possible to prepare you for the next step of care or discharge.
Emergency medicine services in Gainesville
When an emergency occurs, every second counts and the quality of care you receive can make all the difference.
HCA Florida North Florida Hospital's emergency room (ER) is open 24/7, offering full-service care for adult and pediatric patients. We are recognized by DNV-GL Healthcare as a Comprehensive Stroke Center and the American College of Cardiology as an Accredited Chest Pain Center with PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) and Resuscitation. This means we are committed to ensuring you have the highest level of care to treat your emergency condition.
Our emergency care features and services
We offer 24/7 emergency care for patients of all ages.
Fast emergency services
To better serve patients in our emergency department, we have a designated Care Path area for patients with less severe medical emergencies. Care Path allows us to treat patients faster without compromising the quality of care.
Heart attack treatment
Our hospital was the first in Gainesville to be recognized as an Accredited Chest Pain Center with PCI. This means we can quickly diagnose and treat patients experiencing chest pain with excellent clinical outcomes.
With the resuscitation accreditation, our facility has a robust target temperature management program that includes policies, procedures and protocols for post-cardiac arrest treatment. We also maintain a "no diversion policy" for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients.
We offer a range of treatments for patients who have experienced a heart attack, including a coronary balloon angioplasty with stenting and cardiac rehabilitation.
Stroke intervention
A stroke is a severe medical emergency requiring prompt treatment to address decreased blood flow to or within the brain. The sooner treatment is administered, the better the outcome. Our emergency care team has extensive experience identifying stroke symptoms, obtaining a fast diagnosis and quickly beginning treatment.
As a Comprehensive Stroke Center, we provide quality patient outcomes and a wide range of interventional stroke services.
Freestanding emergency departments
In addition to the emergency department at our hospital, we also have three freestanding emergency care locations throughout the Gainesville community. Our freestanding emergency clinics offer all the same services you would receive in our hospital's emergency department. We are also able to easily transport patients to our hospital if continued care is needed.
Our freestanding emergency locations include:
Our emergency room wait times
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.
When to go to the emergency room
We understand it can be hard to know what type of medical care you need, like whether you should go to the emergency room or wait for your doctor's office to open.
Conditions that may require emergency care
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
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