Emergency Services
If you are experiencing an emergency, Call 911.
Finger Lakes Health provides Emergency Services at both the Brenda & Dave Rickey Foundation Emergency Department at Geneva General Hospital in Geneva and at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital in Penn Yan.
An emergent medical condition is one requiring immediate medical attention by a physician for stabilization of a critical illness or traumatic injury. In many instances, you may avoid coming to the Emergency Department by seeking the advice of your Primary Care Physician, but if you need us, we are here for you 24 hours a days, 365 days a year to care for your medical needs.
The mission of our Departments is to provide unsurpassed quality of care in the most efficient manner possible. This can only be done through the teamwork demonstrated daily by our nursing and physician staff. Knowing what to expect can sometimes ease the anxiety inherent to a visit in the Emergency Department.
•Greeter: When you arrive, there will be a greeter at our ambulatory triage station who asks for basic information (i.e. chief complaint, name, date of birth). If arriving by ambulance, this information will be given directly to the nurse.
•Triage: We do our best to obtain triage information at the bedside. Having an accurate, updated medication list is the single most helpful piece of information that you or a family member can bring to assist in this process. Download a health history sheet PDF.
•Registration: At some point after the initial nursing triage, and typically after a medical screening exam is performed by one of our physicians, a member from registration staff will come to your room and ask for additional information.
•Medical Care: In the Emergency Department, you will be examined and treated by an Emergency Department physician employed by Finger Lakes Health. Your care team is comprised of nurses, physicians and medical technicians who perform laboratory work and diagnostic procedures such as X-rays, CT scans and Ultrasound.
•Disposition: After completion of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, your physician will offer a recommendation for further care in the hospital or discharge home with a written and verbal care plan with recommendations to follow up with your Primary Care Provider or another specialist. On rare occasions, your physician may also recommend transfer to another hospital that has specialty care or treatment that is not available in Geneva or Penn Yan.
One of the most important aspects in the event of an emergency is rapid intake and evaluation by a physician. According to 2015 data on ER wait times from the Federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital and Geneva General Hospital were ranked as the first and second fastest in the upstate New York region, respectively, for being seen most quickly by a physician.
Although we have multiple processes in place to provide the fastest care possible, emergency care at times will take longer than you may expect. As much as possible, patients are seen on a first come, first served basis, but sometimes patients may be treated out-of-turn due to the arrival of a person whose condition is severe or life-threatening. We provide treatment as quickly as possible and do our best to determine priorities fairly.
Geneva General Hospital is a Joint Commission Certified Advanced Primary Stroke Center, New York State Department of Health Primary Stroke Center, and a Joint Commission Certified Chest Pain Center. What this means for you is that the physicians, nurses and medical technicians have received specialized training in the care of stroke and chest pain patients. Through these programs, we maintain vigorous performance improvement initiatives to ensure that our community is receiving the most advanced, up to date care available.
