Wee Woo Gazette

Anyone who’s been to a local emergency room knows how long the wait times can be. One local says they waited almost 5 hours, sitting in a cramped and smelly waiting room while suffering from the back pain they’ve had for 30 years, waiting for pain medication. One local hospital is trying something new to help cut down wait times and lower burdens on healthcare staff.

Haven View Hospital is trialling a new technology in hopes to drastically decrease wait times for the emergency department. Hospital administrators hope that with this prototype they can decrease unnecessary patient volume in the ED, thereby improving patient wait times, and overall experiences, a key focus for the administrators overseeing the ED.

This exciting new technology is a prescription medication vending machine. With a simple swipe of your insurance and credit card, patients will have access to many of the things that they normally wait hours for. Hospital Administrators say that one of the main roadblocks to taking care of patients in a way that minimizes their wait time and maximizes their satisfaction, is the time it takes for them to be assessed by a physician or other provider, as well as the time for nurses to take their vitals, draw blood for lab testing, etc. Other delays often include things like waiting hours for CT scans, multiple hours for blood tests to return, or simply waiting for specialists to return phone calls. By skipping all of these efficiency-draining steps and going straight to the part where people get their medications, Haven View administrators hope to see patient satisfaction scores jump up much higher.

The medications available in these machines will be some of the most commonly prescribed medicines in the ED. These include Zofran, Midazolam, Suboxone, Olanzapine, Bactrim, and even IV-fluids. These medications will be shelved alongside some other emergency department favorites such as turkey sandwiches, Uncrustables, juice cups, and chicken tenders. After the initial trial period, the offerings within the machines will continuously be re-assessed based on which are the most used, and most mentioned in reviews of the hospital online. One administrator remarked that they hope to include all medications, once they are able to overcome the unfortunate hurdle of being unable to provide protected medications without having been seen by a medical professional. They also hope that this will be the start of a future of increased efficiency with further projects being a drive-through CT scanner, and a fully automated turkey sandwich machine.

When asked about the safety of offering any prescription medicines in the lobby of a hospital without oversight from medical professionals, the hospital administration had this to say:

“We have the utmost of faith in our patients’ abilities to make decisions for themselves. For anyone who is unsure of the best options, we will have a volunteer from the local community sitting next to the vending machine for 3 hours a day in the mornings on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.”

Richard, a local to the area who claims to visit the emergency department multiple times a week for IV fluids due to his distaste for drinking water, says that he thinks these machines will be a great change.

“I have to come into the emergency room at least every other day. I can’t drink water the normal way so I have to get all of my hydration through IV fluids. Even though not being able to stay hydrated is clearly a serious problem, sometimes I end up waiting 5 or 6 hours in the waiting room before I ever get taken back to a room to see a doctor. With Haven View offering this expedited path, the medical care that I rely on to live my life is going to save me dozens of hours every week that I would otherwise have spent sitting in a chair watching 4 different news stations at the same time.”

While the hospital leaders are certainly excited about installing this new method of treatment, patients will have to wait a little bit longer. The new machine is scheduled to be in place by this Fall, in the emergency room of the downtown Haven View hospital.