What to Expect

Steps in Your Visit

At some hospitals, visiting the emergency department can be a chaotic, anxiety-provoking experience. However, at Mount Sinai, we created an emergency medicine experience that offers patients efficiency, comfort, and personalized attention. If you are a patient who is ambulatory and conscious, your emergency center experience will include the following steps:

1. Registration: Upon arriving, a health care professional will register you for assistance and assess your medical state for further care.
2. Cooperation: Depending on your designated status, medical professionals will move you to an appropriate location to conduct treatment. It is important to cooperate with their instructions to ensure efficient care.
3. Care: As a patient, you will be assigned various nurses to attend to your bedside care throughout your visit.
4. Examination: A physician, physician’s assistant, or nurse practitioner will perform basic diagnostic tests and prescribe medications, if necessary. In addition, it is important to inform your emergency department physician or nonphysician practitioner of your primary care physician so he or she can be contacted.
5. Determination: After reviewing preliminary tests, your physician will determine what comes next, such as one of the following:
   • Discharge with further instructions for a future visit with your primary care physician or a specialist
   • Admission to the hospital
   • Observation to monitor your medical status, and then reevaluation after a specific period of time

Why Am I Waiting in the Emergency Center?

Any condition that requires a visit to the emergency department can be considered urgent; however, some conditions are more urgent than others – even life-threatening! That’s why we use a proven effective triage system, in which our nurses determine the severity and urgency of your condition upon arrival. With our triage system, patients who are critically ill or injured receive medical attention immediately. Patients who can wait will be seen by a doctor or care provider as quickly as possible.

The emergency department does not operate on a “first come, first served” basis. Instead, we use the triage system to make sure every patient receives care based on the severity of their medical circumstances.

In addition, it’s important to remember that the emergency department relies on services and professionals who work in other parts of the medical center. So, in addition to patients in the emergency department, other patients admitted to the hospital may require care that delays a doctor or nurse from being able to help patients in the emergency department.

Fortunately, at Mount Sinai, we have a dedicated team of doctors and nurses specifically assigned to care for patients in the emergency center. As a result, most patients receive care quickly without long wait times.

After Your Visit

After discharge from the emergency department, take care to ensure your recovery continues so you don’t require a return trip to the ED.

Follow these steps:

• Review your initial diagnosis and prepare to follow up with specialists, if necessary.
• Read and follow all discharge instructions carefully to ensure a proper recovery and to understand the process and timing of your healing. These instructions are also important to better understand when to follow up with your physician.
• Take the time to go over your discharge instructions with your doctor to make sure you understand what’s expected of you, including understanding your prescriptions, scheduling follow-up appointments, and complying with any special diet or physical limitations.
• Be aware of medications prescribed to you. If your physician prescribes medications,  those will be called into your pharmacy of choice, should you provide one.  If not, you will receive a paper prescription to fill.
• Register for MyChart Electronic Health Record. After your visit, you will also receive an email to register for MyChart.  MyChart allows you to seamlessly view your medical records, refill prescriptions, communicate with your physicians, pay your medical bills and much more.  For more information and/or to register with MyChart, please click HERE.