RENEWED URGENCY HOSPITAL HASTENS RESPONSE.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - When a visit to urgent care Wednesday night didn't help Susan Salkeld's son's earache and her husband's headache and vomiting, she rushed them to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital's emergency room the next morning.

With them and another son who developed an earache, Salkeld expected to spend hours in the emergency room.

But when they arrived, they were ushered into care by way of the new Fast Track program. They were out in just more than an hour.

On Monday, the hospital unveiled a $250,000 expansion to its emergency room - a facility with wireless admitting tools and eight new treatment bays designed to treat nonemergency cases.

``This is designed for speed,'' said Mark Wallerstein, director of the emergency department, whose new facility will cater to people with complaints of flu and cold symptoms and minor injuries - the patients who make up 60 percent of their visitors.

``All three were in and out in one hour and 10 minutes,'' Salkeld said. ``My husband got a CT scan, X-rays, and they all got medicine. This is the wave of the future.''

The new facility, which was funded by the hospital's foundation, is comparable to urgent care, but Newhall Memorial has board-certified emergency room physicians and trauma capability.

Since the room opened, the average time for patient care from check-in to release is about 128 minutes - below the national average and the hospital's own average wait time last year of about 200 minutes.

``I don't want to claim success until we're up and running,'' Wallerstein said. ``But the whole turnaround is helping all emergency room patients receive better care and service.''

Emergency room workers attribute part of the increased efficiency to their new wireless bedside registration system, which is a roll-around unit with a laptop computer that allows nurses to input the patients' information.

With the old system, patients would sign-in and wait for a nurse to call their name. After registering, patients would wait until they were assigned a bed, and then wait for a doctor.

``With this success, we hope to utilize it throughout the hospital,'' said Harriet Winkle, director of business services and registration, who took part in recommending the wireless registration system.

High-tech features like digital X-rays have also played a significant role in allowing doctors to speed up patient care.

``The new facility and new equipment make it easier to have lab results, X-ray results, and the doctor can make decisions faster,'' said Chand Khanna, a pulmonary specialist who has worked at the hospital for 22 years.

The hospital didn't plan on the eight-bed expansion, but rather for a larger emergency room, when hospital staff emphasized the community's immediate need of more efficient service.

``We were getting complaints from patients that they had to wait too long, and that tainted their whole thinking about the hospital,'' Khanna said.

Roger Seaver, the hospital's president and chief executive officer, said the staff convinced him to address the problems in urgent care.

``They insisted it was for the benefit of the community and for better patient care, and it would make a big difference over the next two to three years when it comes to moving patients through the facility,'' Seaver said.

The facility, which increased the emergency room's capacity by 50 percent, is a temporary solution for the hospital that is the sole emergency-care provider to 211,000 people.

The hospital is expected to serve 36,000 people this year - up from 33,000 last year - and 55,000 by 2011.

``We have an obligation as a nonprofit to make sure we're open and available to people,'' Seaver said. ``We're trying to be consistent with the growth of the community because its needs are growing and we have to respond to those needs.''

The hospital has submitted to the state architectural plans for the emergency room expansion project that includes a 35-bed facility and will replace the current room.

``We're very aggressive, and we're on schedule,'' Wallerstein said.

The hospital's foundation is preparing to enter into a capital campaign to raise money to help fund the $6 million expansion project, and construction is expected to complete in November of 2004.

The administration's actions are lifting the morale of hospital workers, some of who remember the difficulties of working under the previous administration and before the hospital was forced to file for Chapter 11 reorganization after it failed to pay $10 million in debt.

``This place was a disaster, an awful place to work, and they were losing staff left and right,'' said emergency medical technician Jennifer Phillips, who left two years ago to become a sheriff's deputy. She returned several months ago.

As a sign of support, the medical staff paid to reupholster the seats in the emergency room, concerned about the impression that tattered seats would make on visitors.

``There is a change in morale. The staff is happier, we have what we need to do our jobs, and when we make suggestions it's not the eye-roll. It happens, and it happens very quickly,'' Phillips said. ``It's a team now - from the directors to administrators to the medical staff to doctors.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Emergency medical technician Jennifer Phillips evaluates Jonathan Salkeld, 14, who came to the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital emergency room with his mother, Susan, complaining of an earache.

(2 -- color) Mark Wallerstein, emergency department director at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial, shows some of the hospital's new technology.

(3) Admitting coordinator Veronica Castro demonstrates the emergency room wireless bedside registration system.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer