Department of Emergency Medicine (Advanced Emergency Medical Center)

Contents of medical treatment

The Advanced Emergency Medical Center was established as an advanced intensive care center focusing on the ICU ward in 1989 in Wakayama Medical University Hospital. Functions for ER and the Japanese style of the third emergency medicine were added in 1999 and it was designated as an emergency medical center in 2000 (it was approved as an advanced emergency medical center in 2011). There are many areas that have difficulty in accessing the advanced medical facility due to geographical conditions in Wakayama prefecture. In order to further enrich emergency medical treatment and community medicine all over the prefecture, we started to operate a “doctor helicopter” in 2003. An emergency physician from our center boards the helicopter as a flight doctor and we try to prevent preventable death. In addition, taking advantage of an emergency medical center with a university hospital, we admit patients with primary to tertiary emergency diseases 24 hours a day cooperating with staff in individual medical departments, both internal medicine and surgery, in the hospital.

Because of the above enrichment of our emergency care system, our center ranked seventh among 235 facilities all over the country in the 2010 fiscal year grading evaluation of enrichment of emergency medical centers by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare.

Fields of specialty

Various emergency disease states, such as shock, CPAOA, acute respiratory failure, acute circulation failure, blast crisis from chronic disease etc.
Exogenous diseases: multiple injury (individual organs, bone/soft tissue, and spinal injury), severe burn, acute poisoning, foreign body, suffocation, accidental drowning, heat stroke, hypothermia, decompression illness etc.

Endogenous diseases: severe infections, cerebrovascular diseases, endocrine and metabolism disorders, acute lung injuries, acute coronary syndrome, liver failure, renal failure, severe pancreatitis, intestinal necrosis, massive hemorrhage (hematemesis, melaena, spitting blood, intraperitoneal and retroperitoneal bleeding etc.), spine and neuromuscular diseases etc.

Emergency outpatient service (ER)

We have 5 treatment beds for severe patients (one of them is in a negative pressure treatment room) and 12 overnight beds in the outpatient division where initial medical care is provided for primary to tertiary emergency patients. In addition, we also have a general consultation room and special consultation room for ophthalmology, otorhinology, and dentistry. In addition to a plain X-ray imaging room, a CT room with the latest-type of 64-slice CT scanner and a fluoroscopy room where angiography is available adjacent to the treatment beds for severe cases, therefore we can promptly perform advanced emergency treatment such as emergency diagnostic imaging, surgical treatment, and embolotherapy etc. The overnight bed is used for medical treatment at night when a family hospital is not available and it is in a system where a patient can be transferred to a family hospital etc. the next day during working hours after having been in observation at night in the ER, depending on the condition. This system has started to operate since January 2012 in cooperation with surrounding individual hospitals.

High Care Unit, Stroke Care Unit and Intensive Care Unit (HCU/SCU and ICU)

The wards where an emergency patient is admitted after the initial medical examination in the ER are HCU (moderate illness)/SCU (cerebrovascular disorder), and ICU (severe illness). Because we perform more intensive medical treatment and nursing care in these wards than in general wards, there are restrictions on visits. We request each family’s understanding and cooperation. We perform special medical treatments such as artificial respiration management, auxiliary circulation therapy, and acute blood purification therapy in the ICU ward. ICU full-time physicians of our center perform intensive care management 24 hours a day so that not only a patient in the emergency medical center but a patient in the internal medicine or surgery in the hospital can receive optimal whole body control when his/her condition has a sudden change or has advanced in severity.

To patients who are considering a visit to our medical department

We perform emergency medical care 24 hours a day by full-time physicians of our emergency medical center cooperating with individual specialty departments of the hospital.

Contact (Phone): 073-441-0501/073-447-2300

We prioritize medical treatment for seriously ill patients for the purpose of saving a life, therefore medical examination order may sometime change.
We are sorry for the trouble we may cause you and thank you for your patience and understanding. ?
When a long wait time is expected before having a medical examination, we sometimes recommend a visit to Wakayama City Night/Holiday Emergency Medical Center (Phone: 073-425-8181) etc. depending on the symptoms.

Departments

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