Our department is fully equipped and fully staffed to deliver an accurate diagnosis for initial care and monitoring for all patients, no matter how serious the emergency. We also have a resuscitation room and a plaster room as well as several treatment and consultation rooms.
Our department
Four senior doctors work alongside a team of highly-experienced nurses to ensure the emergency department runs smoothly and efficiently. A key role is played by the triage nurse who is the first point of contact for patients arriving at the emergency department. He or she is responsible for determining the nature and severity of cases while collecting basic information, such as:
- name and personal details
- medical condition and obvious injuries
- level of urgency
Patients are then seated in a waiting area before being examined and treated in a private cubicle. Seventy percent of patients, notwithstanding those who require immediate medical attention, are seen by our emergency department within 30 minutes. At the start of 2006, we introduced an IT system to manage the cubicles within the emergency unit in order to optimise resources and improve efficiency. This system is also a valuable statistical tool.
What about health insurance?
The emergency department at Hôpital de La Tour delivers emergency care for all patients with basic health insurance. If a procedure and/or inpatient care is required after initial care, patients who do not have supplemental health insurance are transferred to the Geneva Teaching Hospitals (HUG). This also applies to patients who would like to be treated at a different facility. In most cases, the remaining patients can be treated at Hôpital de La Tour due to the wide range of medical and surgical specialisms practised at our hospital combined with our state-of-the art facilities and capacity to provide inpatient care.