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THE FACILITIES |
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University Hospital is the major teaching hospital of the UNM School of Medicine. As the state's only Level 1 trauma center, University Hospital serves a large number of emergency patients. The emergency department serves more than 80,000 patients annually, and more than 16 percent are admitted to the hospital. The nursing staff is ACLS and CEN certified, and many of the technicians were trained in the military.
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The
Emergency Department: The Department of
Emergency Medicine is located in the Barbara and Bill Richardson Pavilion
and offers a full range of emergency services, including resuscitation and
stabilization of the critically ill or injured patient utilizing advanced
airway management techniques. These services are provided with the
full support of advanced technology such as rapid helical computerized
tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound, angiography,
and dedicated emergency laboratory and radiology services 24 hours a day.
The ED has 83 beds including 12 pediatric beds, 10 observation beds and 7
trauma/critical care beds. The main adult ED has two pods: Sandia and
Manzano each with about 20 beds. Patients desiring either emergency or
urgent care go through initial triage. 50,000 patients are triaged to the
Emergency Department, 10,000 plus are triaged to the Urgent Care Center and
over 20,000 to the Pediatric ED. Other non-acute patients are triaged
to local community health centers and to other university clinics such as
medicine and pediatrics. The ED is a county hospital, university hospital,
regional referral center, and the ED for the Indian Health Service Hospital
next door, so the patient population is quite mixed. It is the only level I
trauma center in the state and serves as the trauma center for southern
Colorado, eastern Arizona, the Navajo Nation and pueblos as well. It is an
integrated emergency department, meaning that patients of all specialties
are the responsibility of the ED attending and are available for evaluation
by residents rotating in the ED. Patient acuity is very high with a
significant number of critical trauma, medical and pediatric resuscitations
every shift.
Trauma
care is provided through the collaboration of
the trauma team and the emergency physicians. The trauma team is notified
immediately of the arrival of any patient with unstable vital signs or
penetrating trauma to the central area of the body. The ED physicians are
responsible for initial resuscitation and airway management in all patients.
Trauma patients are assessed and treated in collaboration with EM and Trauma.
Patients not meeting criteria for immediate trauma consult are assessed by the
ED. The trauma team is then consulted if the work-up reveals a condition
requiring hospital admission or general anesthesia. 1,500 patients are seen in
the trauma room yearly about 300 of which are pediatric.|
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