Emergency Department

Location(s): Onaga

Emergency Department

Our Emergency Department understands your needs during a medical emergency.

All patients receive emergency care from a team of medical providers, nurses and staff who bring generations of experience, expertise, and compassion, providing around-the-clock expert care, as well as diagnostic imaging assessments and lab testing.

The American College of Surgeons, in concert with the Kansas Advisory Committee on Trauma, has certified the Onage Hospital as a Level IV Trauma Center. Onaga Hospital has also received accreditation from the American Heart Association as an Emergent Stroke Ready Hospital.

When deciding whether to go to the Emergency Department or to a Family Practice Clinic, go to the Emergency Department

Look for the following symptoms:

When you first enter the Emergency Department, there is a triage process. A specially trained registered nurse will assess your symptoms to determine the severity of your medical problem. Life-threatening and critical injuries will be treated first. Patients who require additional care can be admitted to CHCS’s hospital, just down the hall from our emergency department.

Emergency Medical Transport, providing high-quality medical care to critically injured or ill patients during transport, is also available.

You can trust that you will receive compassionate care at CHCS.

Level IV Trauma Center

When a traumatic injury occurs, designated trauma centers are prepared to provide a full range of emergency care, including assessment, resuscitation, and stabilization. Designated trauma centers must meet essential criteria that ensures trauma care capability and institutional performance as outlined by the American College of Surgeons and endorsed by the Kansas Advisory Committee on Trauma.

The goal of the Kansas Trauma System is to ensure each patient is properly triaged and matched to the hospital with the most appropriate resources as quickly as possible. Because patients with severe injuries require rapid, specialized treatment to ensure the best chance for recovery, a trauma system increases their chances for survival and reduces their chance of permanent disability.

Community HealthCare System’s Onaga Hospital is a Level IV Trauma Center, which means the hospital provides:

Trauma Team

When the trauma team is activated, patients are met by an emergency room doctor, lab and imaging staff. A thorough evaluation is performed along with any needed lifesaving interventions. On occasion, a higher level of care may be needed, and patients are transferred to a Level I, II or III trauma facility.

Trauma patients admitted to Community Hospital Onaga can count on continued support of their physical and emotional recovery. Patients have access to a full rehabilitation staff, social workers, and more.

Emergent Stroke Ready Hospital

If you or someone you know should experience symptoms of stroke, seek emergency help immediately–call 911–do not wait!

A stroke can be devastating for both patients and families.

Communty Hospital Onaga has met American Heart Association criteria to receive the Emergent Stroke Ready Hospital designation, including adherence to written emergency stroke protocols and the ability to provide around the clock:

CHCS has developed this transport plan together with the University of Kansas Medical Center, Stormont-Vail HealthCare and Saint Luke’s Health System.

The University of Kansas Hospital was one of the first five healthcare facilities in the country, and the only one in the Midwest, to be recognized as an Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) by The Joint Commission

Because time is crucial to stroke care, our stroke team takes immediate action when paramedics notify the Emergency Department that a stroke patient is en route to Community Hospital Onaga. Patients are quickly evaluated and treated—rapid treatment offers the best chance for surviving a stroke—the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Remember the warning signs of stroke:

BE FAST!

B - Sudden loss of balance or coordination.

E - Sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes.

F - Does the face look uneven, or droop on one side? Ask the person to smile.

A - Does one arm drift down? Ask the person to raise both arms.

S - Does their speech sound slurred or strange? Ask the person to repeat a phrase.

T – Time is critical. Every second brain cells die.

Call 911 at any sign of stroke and describe the symptoms to the emergency dispatcher.

Emergency Medical Transporation

Air Medical

Children's Mercy Critical Care Transport and LifeStar provide regional emergency air ambulance helicopter service that provides rapid transportation for critically ill and injured patients who need specialized care. Air medical transport can be airborne within minutes of a call, 24 hours a day, every day, traveling at speeds above 150 miles per hour. This significantly reduces the transport time of critically ill patients, either from a transferring hospital or from the scene of an emergency.

Children's Mercy Critical Care Transport and LifeStar service various locations throughout the region, including a predesignated landing zone at Community Hospital Onaga.

Ground Medical Transport

Pottawatomie County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is an advanced life support ground ambulance service that provides high-quality emergency medical care at the scene of traumatic or medical emergencies and during transport to and between medical facilities. EMS works closely with CHCS medical facilities throughout its service area to ensure advanced level transport options are available to the community.

EMS provides regional ground medical transport through four stations located in the cities of Onaga, St. Marys, Wamego and Westmoreland, with the Onaga and St. Marys ambulances and crews residing at Community Hospital Onaga and St. Marys Family Health Center, respectively.

Mission: Lifeline Kansas and Project 10/30

Communty Hospital Onaga participates in the American Heart Association's Mission: Lifeline Kansas and Project 10/30.

Mission: Lifeline is the American Heart Association’s program establishing regional Systems of Care focused on ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), in which blood flow is completely blocked to a portion of the heart, and Sudden Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation.

Through partnerships with area EMS, dispatchers, and transfering hospitals, CHCS establishes streamlined systems of care to improve the process and outcomes of cardiac emergencies.

Project 10/30 is designed to improve the speed of recognition to reperfusion for patients with STEMI. The “10” stands for the time goal of 10 minutes for door-to-EKG interpretation. This time goal has been established by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association for many years, and non-compliance of this time is still found to be a major cause of delay in patient treatment. Rapidly obtaining an EKG, and immediately showing that EKG to an experienced provider for interpretation is the most effective method of triage in a patient with signs or symptoms of ACS. The “30” of Project 10/30 is reflective of 2 other important time goals: 30 minutes Door-in-Door-Out (DIDO) and 30 minutes Door-to-Needle in patients who are determined eligible for thrombolytics.

As part of the Lifeline Kansas network, the team starts preparations the moment its notified that a heart attack patient is on the way.

This network identifies hospitals that participate in coordinated systems of care for STEMI and meet the following 24/7 standards:

Through its Mission Lifeline program, the American Heart Association hopes to significantly reduce cardiac death by teaching the public to recognize and react to early symptoms of heart attack, reduce the time it takes to receive lifesaving treatment and increase the accuracy and effectiveness of treatment administered.

For more information on the American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline Heart Attack Referral Center Accreditation, visit www.heart.org/missionlifeline or www.scpcp.org.