A new program at the Ballard campus of Swedish Medical Center is designed to give faster treatment to workers who’ve been hurt in high risk jobs like marine services, fishing, and heavy manufacturing. Swedish just announced the new program called Employer Medical Assistance (EMA). From the press release:
Among other services, EMA provides emergency-room treatment with wait times much shorter than the national average, access to the largest and most comprehensive surgery program in theregion, quick referrals to medical specialists and sub-specialists in cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, rehabilitation and many other fields.
EMA stays in communication with the patient and the business throughout the process, and then bills the employer’s commercial insurance carrier. The program will be headquartered at the Ballard campus and expects to see up to 400 patients each year.
As an ER doc, I find it disturbing that one’s ER wait time should depend on anything but how sick or injured you are relative to other patients. When my family goes to the ER for something, we wait in line like everyone else and feel thankful that we are not sick/hurt enough to need immediate attention.
Funny thing about boats – they leave and get out on the water… on schedule. Oh yeah, they also have alot of people on them who are in contained areas and can make alot of people around them very ill, here, there and far away.
DS,
I updated the story to clarify that Swedish says the wait time to get into the ER is shorter than the national average. Didn’t mean to imply that you get to cut in line.
Doug
Hmmm…
The language update must have worked, because my first thought was how wonderful it is that people in high-risk jobs will have ready access to medical care. Didn’t even occur to me that it would impact service to others.