By Jamie L. Costa
The Eagle-Tribune
PLAISTOW, N.H. — In the year since the freestanding emergency room on Plaistow Road opened, it has helped save lives, reduce wait times for treatment, and lessen the burden on first responders and local urgent cares.
Where the department differs from other healthcare providers is in its commitment to greeting and treating patients quickly with a systematic approach to teamwork and patient care, said Dr. Devin Keefe, the ER Medical Director for Parkland Medical Center and the emergency room.
“The general feedback we get from patients is that they typically aren’t used to being seen so quickly or getting their care done so rapidly,” Keefe said.
Since the ER year opened last year, it’s served more than 8,000 patients, 93% of which are walk-in patients while the remaining 7% are transported via ambulance from the greater Plaistow community, including Atkinson, Hampstead, Sandown, Newton, Kingston and sometimes Haverhill and Salem, Mass.
Patients experiencing strokes, heart attacks, asthma attacks and allergic reactions are at a higher risk of death while en route to neighboring hospitals, like Parkland Medical Center in Derry and Lawrence General or Holy Family in Haverhill. Now, they have the chance to be stabilized and evaluated before being transported to a larger hospital for intake, if needed.
Unlike urgent care, the emergency room is open 24 hours a day and has 10 private treatment rooms, a negative pressure room, a fully equipped trauma bay, and ambulance bay, an X-ray machine, ultrasound capabilities, a CT scanner and an on-site lab for diagnostics.
“It helps the urgent cares by having this facility here,” Keefe said. “They know they can call us and tell us about a patient they think should come to the emergency department and we are happy to evaluate them.”
Prior to becoming the medical director at Parkland, Keefe worked at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, which operates two freestanding emergency rooms in Dover and Seabrook, he said.
“They are both very successful and appreciated by the communities,” Keefe said. “It’s a model that is becoming more popular and is helping people get access to care quicker. It’s a way to broaden our area and get quick access to emergency care across a wider part of the community.”
Without access to the freestanding emergency room, fire departments like Plaistow might have to drive upwards of 30 minutes to the nearest hospital, said Fire Chief Chris Knutsen.
“Having an ER in your community creates a safer community. Quick and local access to ER care decreases the long-term effects of medical events,” he said. “There is some misconception from community members that it’s a strain on our services. It doesn’t cause a strain, it has the opposite effect.”
It helps lessen the strain on local services because of the local access, allowing paramedics and EMTs to room a patient immediately, hand the case over to a nurse and get back in service within three to five minutes, Knutsen said.
Though the fire department doesn’t partner with Parkland Medical Center for access to its services, they do partner with HCA Healthcare, the parent company, and use Parkland Medical Center as a resource hospital for its pharmaceutical needs, like medications and IV fluids, free of cost, which saves the department nearly $30,000 a year.
When HCA saw the need for additional services in the greater Plaistow community, it allocated $12 million to Parkland Medical Center to establish and operate the fully functioning emergency room. The department opened in September 2023.
“A lot of people that come here are being seen and they’re getting sent home. We like to treat you fast and get you back home in a couple of hours instead of taking you further away from your dog and your family,” said Jennifer White, manager of the emergency room. “That’s what’s most important to the patients.”
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