Adult Emergency Department Patient Guide
Adult Emergency Department Patient Guide
Thank you for trusting us with your care. Medical emergencies are stressful and often confusing. Our emergency department (ED) faculty and staff are committed to providing the highest quality and safest care possible. We promise to treat you with dignity and respect.
Once you arrive at the ED, you will go through the step-by-step process of check-in and triage, evaluation and treatment, registration, and then either discharge or hospitalization. Many patients are referred to our ED by their providers, as our health system offers many specialty services and excellent patient care. However, referrals do not guarantee priority evaluation or admission. During busy times when the hospital has a large number of patients, patients may experience longer wait times in the ED waiting room.
Check-in & Triage
Our check-in staff will ask several questions to open or create a medical record for you.
- A triage nurse will ask more questions to determine how we should begin your care. Triage is the process of checking patient illnesses and injuries and organizing patients based on their need for emergency treatment.
- We will take you to a triage area for privacy where a nurse will talk with you about how you are feeling. A member of our team will also measure your temperature, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.
- If a treatment area is not available when the nurse is done, we will direct you to a waiting area. To help speed up your visit, the triage nurse may begin one or more medical tests to get your treatment started while you wait.
- Some patients will be moved directly to a treatment area if their condition is extremely serious or if they have a condition that could spread to others in the waiting area.
- The ED uses text messages to keep you and your friends or family updated on your care. You can sign up to receive these text updates during check-in.
Evaluation & Treatment
- Your care team will include a nurse, a doctor, and a physician assistant, resident doctor, or medical student to provide care for you, manage your care team, and keep you informed during your visit.
- As part of your medical evaluation, your medical provider may recommend certain tests to help us better understand your condition. These may include blood or urine (pee) tests, an EKG to see how your heart is working, and special tests that create pictures of the inside of your body, such as an ultrasound, X-ray, CT scan, or MRI. -- Lab work and X-rays often take 60-90 minutes, while specialty tests (CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds) can take several hours.
- Michigan Medicine is a teaching hospital, so medical students, residents, and fellows may be part of your care team. A board-certified emergency medicine doctor closely supervises the care of each patient in the ED.
Our ED team members wear color-coded scrubs to help you understand the different roles of our staff members.
- Gray = Medical Providers, Doctors and P.A.
- Navy Blue = Nurses
- Olive Green = ED Techs
- Burgundy = ED Unit Hosts & Clerks
- Beige = ED Registrars
Your care team may also include social workers, pharmacists, and respiratory therapists.
Our ED medical team may also discuss your health with other Michigan Medicine specialty doctors. Throughout the process, your nurse will keep you informed, answer your questions, and address your concerns.
Registration
Once you move to the treatment area, a staff member called a registrar will meet with you to confirm your address, the name of your primary care doctor, your insurance information, and your preferred pharmacy.
- The registrar will prepare a consent form that we’ll ask you to sign. Signing the form gives us permission to treat you in the ED and bill your insurance.
- MyUofMHealth.org is our online patient portal that lets you request prescription refills, manage appointments, pay bills, and access test results online. Our registration team can help you enroll in MyUofMHealth.org if you are not already enrolled.
Discharge
When your evaluation and testing is complete, you may be cleared for discharge (meaning that you can leave the ED and hospital).
- Before being discharged, your treatment team will review your test results, diagnosis, and any plans for follow-up care with you. You will receive a copy of discharge instructions (plans of care you should follow outside the hospital) before you leave.
- Talk with your nurse or medical provider about any questions or concerns you may have about your care or discharge instructions before you leave the ED. Talk to your nurse early if you think you’ll have any difficulties with getting a ride home once you’re discharged, or if you have any other concerns with discharge. Let us know if you need a medical note for work or school.
- When you are ready to leave, be sure to stop at checkout to complete any final paperwork and take care of payments or copays.
Hospitalization
Sometimes more hospital care is required for your condition. We know this may be unexpected. Please let us know if we can help you with phone calls or other ways to help you prepare for your stay.
- If hospitalization is your next step, your ED care team will ensure a smooth transition to the admitting team that will be caring for you.
- We recommend that you send personal belongings home with friends or family. A member of our security team can help you secure any personal belongings that you are not able to send home.
Visitor Policy
To protect the privacy and safety of all patients, visitation is limited to one or two visitors at a time, depending on patient location. A visitor badge is required for entry into the treatment area and may be obtained from the guest services specialist in the waiting area.
A visitor center for family and friends is located in close proximity to the Emergency Department. Visitors may be asked to move to the visitor center to reserve waiting room space for patients. Large groups of family and visitors may be relocated to an alternate waiting area.
Frequently Asked Questions
Some of the questions asked are required by law (do you feel safe at home?) and some are required for public health and safety reasons (have you traveled out of the country? do you have flu symptoms, etc.).
Patients may be taken in for treatment “out of order” for a number of reasons. Patients with serious illness or injury must be treated immediately. A patient may also be taken to get an X-ray or blood drawn for laboratory tests or to be placed in isolation to prevent passing on contagious illnesses to other patients. If you believe that you have been overlooked, please tell one of our unit hosts in burgundy scrubs so we can follow up right away.
Please let the unit host know if you are feeling worse, having a new problem or would like to ask a question. He or she will contact a triage nurse right away to address your concern.
Unfortunately, sometimes waiting can’t be avoided. If you need to wait for a treatment area, we want to make you as comfortable as possible. The unit host stationed in the waiting area is available to provide assistance, answer questions or take care of personal needs such as a warm blanket. If you would like to leave the waiting area for a short time, the unit host can give you a pager and will page you when it is your turn to be seen.
Before you use the restroom, please check with the unit host about whether a urine sample may be necessary.
Lab work and X-rays often take 60-90 minutes, while specialty tests (CT scans, MRI, ultrasound) can take several hours.
You may need a test or procedure that requires you to have an empty stomach. Before eating or drinking anything, check with the unit host in the waiting room, or with your medical provider or nurse if you are in a treatment area.
It is important for you to understand what is happening during your time here. Please let us know how we can help or if there are any words that you do not understand. We also offer trained and certified medical interpreters to assist patients or their family members who may have limited English proficiency or are visually or hearing impaired.
Depending on your condition, the type of testing required and the severity and requirements of other patients in the ED, the amount of wait time can vary. Sometimes the process of scheduling tests to reviewing results can take several hours. Your team will keep you updated and inform you of any delays but please ask if you have questions.
They can call your cell phone if you have it with you, or call the main Emergency Department number, 734-936-6666 and we will get a message to you if you have not opted out of receiving phone calls during the check-in process.
When using the room phones, dial 97 for an outside line. Dial 0 to call the hospital operator for assistance with placing a long distance call.
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