"Fast Track" gives Siouxlanders a quicker option at MercyOne's redesigned emergency room

Visiting an emergency room can be a scary and stressful experience. With the colorless walls and unusual smells, many who need emergency care find themselves waiting hours to be seen, but not anymore. 
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Inside MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center's newly renovated, redesigned and reimagined emergency room, the Fast Track does just what its name says, gets patients in and out fast.

"With our Fast Track, we are really excited to be able to serve the community in this capacity."

Chris Hawkins is the Emergency Services Director at MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center. "We really strive to see patients in under 90 minutes and get you in and have your treatment and discharged in that amount of time."

Fast Track is designed for less severe emergencies and when new mom Rikki Myers brought her son into MercyOne's emergency room after a scary fall, she was moved into the Fast Track system. While the nurse was checking her son, she noticed something else, a cough. He tested positive for RSV. 

"They really prepared me because RSV can go from nothing too scary really fast and because I knew he had it, I was prepared to help him get better," Myers said about the team at Fast Track. Because of their quick response to her son's emergency, they also caught his RSV before it got too serious, something this first-time mom is grateful for. 

"They helped me be knowledgeable about what was wrong with my son, even if it wasn't related to what we came in for."

MercyOne's new emergency room and Fast Track is the only one of its kind in the region, designed with patient care and accessibility in mind. 

"Really, the focus was on the community and to be able to get patients who are coming in with lower-level emergencies that were finding they would have to wait longer in the emergency department before it was their turn to be seen," Hawkins said. "So, by doing this it can get them moved through the system a little bit quicker and been seen and treated."

The Fast Track opens at 3 p.m. every afternoon and is located in the ER. The renovations inside the emergency department also include private rooms and valet parking during the week.

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