Emergency Services

What To Expect in the Emergency Center

Emergency Services at Memorial Hermann
With Emergency Centers located throughout the greater Houston area, the award-winning Memorial Hermann Life Flight air ambulance program and the services of Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, a Level 1 Trauma center, Memorial Hermann offers the most comprehensive network of emergency services available in southeast Texas. Each year, some 400,000 people seek treatment in a Memorial Hermann Emergency Center.

If you or a loved one need emergency care, a Memorial Hermann Emergency Center is close by — ready to meet your needs.

To help make your visit to a Memorial Hermann Emergency Center as satisfactory as possible, we’ve prepared this question-and-answer guide.

How does the Emergency Center staff determine when I will be seen by a doctor?
All of our Emergency Centers follow a triage system. The first professional caregiver you will likely meet is a triage nurse. This individual is usually one of the more experienced Emergency Center nurses, whose primary role is to obtain a brief focused history and to perform a rapid physical assessment in order to determine the severity of illness.

Why is triage necessary?
Triaging (a process that helps us rapidly and safely determine which patients need to be seen as a priority and which can safely wait to be seen) is essential because of the nature of emergency rooms.

Several patients may arrive at the same time with varying severity of physical concerns. As you would expect, patients whose conditions are considered the most serious will be seen first. If your condition is not critical, you may be sent to the admitting area to complete the registration process.

What if my condition changes while I am waiting?
Tell the triage nurse if symptoms worsen or if new symptoms develop. The nurse will reassess you and document the new information on your chart.

What type of information will the Emergency Center clerk require?

• Your name, age and date of birth
• Reason for your visit to the Emergency Center
• Your driver’s license or other identification
• Insurance, Medicare or Medicaid card

If my condition is not considered critical, then how long might I wait to be seen?
Your wait will depend on how busy the Emergency Center is and the nature of your condition. In general, evenings, weekends and holidays are busiest. During peak periods, wait times may be as long as several hours.