By Kathy L. Collins
Whether you are a parent with a child who has had an accident or a patient suffering from a heart attack, you can rest assured that you will be seen quickly and receive expert, quality care at Brandon Regional Hospital’s Emergency Department. Brandon Regional Hospital (main Brandon campus and Plant City campus) offers a full-service Emergency Department (at the Brandon campus there is also a dedicated Pediatric ER) complete with state-of-the-art technology, great ER physicians and caring nurses.
Kim Fournier, Associate Chief Nursing Officer said, “The efforts we make to bring patients back as quickly as possible at Brandon Regional Hospital is the best I have ever seen.” Fournier added, “We triage (assess) patients as soon as they come into the ER. This allows us to get them to the appropriate department, get treated or admitted, then sent home with the best possible outcome.”
Fournier said, “The ER is based on a patient centric model which asks what is best for the patient. We studied the process. Innovation today is not just about technology but how we do what we do.” This includes the use of fully-integrated healthcare records which are available electronically, including diagnostic reports which are available in real time.
Brandon Regional Hospital is a part of the West Florida Division of HCA. According to Fournier, “HCA uses a fully-integrated healthcare record system. HCA is one of the few companies in the nation that is. This means that all information, including diagnostic tests such as an MRI or CT Scan, is electronic and fully available to the physicians who treat the patient in real time.
Brandon Regional Hospital utilizes an ER tracker which allow them to see how many patients are in the ER and what level of care they are receiving. The numbers about the ER wait time are based on an average over a four-hour period. Fournier said, “Most wait times are rarely over 15 minutes.”
All of this applies to the main ER, the Pediatric ER and the free-standing ER in Plant City. Fournier said, “The Plant City ER has provided access to healthcare that was not otherwise available to many people in the area.”
Brandon Regional Hospital is located at 119 Oakfield Dr. in Brandon and 3065 James L. Redman Pkwy in Plant City. Visit www.brandonhospital.com.
