Have you ever thought about where we would be without our local hospitals? Where would we go with broken bones, life threatening injuries, cuts, and all of those other nasty things that can happen to us? It is hard to imagine what it was like when the local hospital was 45 miles away one way. It seems that now days there is a hospital on every side of town. And that is a wonderful thing. Some local hospitals have emergency rooms that are open 24 hours. Yet there are some local hospitals that have emergency rooms that are only open certain hours of the day or night. Some local hospitals are small enough that one doctor can staff the emergency room, while other local hospitals must have several doctors there or on call. Some local hospitals with emergency rooms can also have what is known as Fast Track. This is where they take the least serious injuries or illnesses as quick as they can. This has really cut down on a lot of the wait time in local hospitals emergency rooms. Some local hospitals are equipped to handle traumas and disasters while others are not set up for those types of injuries. There are even some local hospitals that have a landing pad for emergency transport helicopters. Local hospitals vary in size from one with as few as 25 to 50 beds or as many as 1,000 beds (some even more). Some local hospitals have Cardiac Care Units and Intensive Care Units. There are some local hospitals that are equipped to do major surgeries while others can do very minor surgeries or they cannot do any at all.

Local hospitals that are set up for short or long term stays must have a Registered Nurse on call at all times. Some local hospitals also have their own pharmacies and pharmacists, their own laboratories, their own physical therapists, even their own anesthesiologists and surgical staff. There are even local hospitals that have gone completely smoke free. This means that there is absolutely no smoking on the campus anywhere (even parking lots). Most people will end up in a hospital at least once in their life time. When you go your local hospital you do have rights. These rights should be posted on their walls where you can see them. They can include rights such as being seen in a timely manner (yet, extreme emergencies are taken before minor injuries and illnesses). You should never be turned away if you are having a life threatening illness or extreme emergency. A pregnant woman should never ever be turned away if she is in labor or having complications. This includes those people who do not have insurance. If a local hospital turns away someone and they die before getting to another hospital, they are looking at a law suit. If you go to a local hospital and have a concern or complaint make sure to put it in writing and submit it to the proper hospital supervisor.