Emergency Department
The Emergency Department of the Horacio Oduber Hospital provides high-quality immediate care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Specialized nurses, first response physicians, ER physicians, and receptionists, inter alia, work at the Emergency Department. The Cast Room also falls under the Emergency Department.
The Emergency Department of the Horacio Oduber Hospital treats approximately 32,000 patients per year. Especially people who have just had an accident or have an acute illness.
Family physician vs. going to the Emergency Department?
If you feel ill, please contact your family physician. Outside office hours, you can contact the “Huisartsenpost” (HAP) for emergency assistance from a general practitioner.
The opening hours of the HAP are:
- Monday to Friday from 6:30 p.m. until 10:30 pm.
- During weekends and public holidays from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. and from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m.
How does it work?
Upon arrival please report to the reception desk. Your reason for visiting and contact information will be registered. We will need your valid AZV card for registration. You will also be asked whether you have been hospitalized or treated at a hospital abroad in the past six months.
After you have been registered, a nurse will assess the seriousness of your request for care. Based on this assessment, he/she will determine how quickly you need to be attended to (we call this triage). After triage, you may be referred to your own family physician and/or the “HAP”. If the seriousness of your request for care requires that you be treated by the Emergency Department, you will be referred to the waiting room or a treatment room.
The nurse will pick you up in the waiting room and take you to a private treatment room where the necessary preparations will be made. Subsequently, the physician will ask you the reason of your visit (request for care) and perform any needed examination and treatments, if necessary.
Waiting time
We try to help you as soon as possible. However, you may have to wait. It is also possible that people who arrive later are helped before you are.
This may be due to:
- the seriousness of their symptoms. Several people arrive around the same time but patients are treated based on the seriousness of their condition.
- permanent arrival of ambulances with patients.
- patients treated by another specialist.
Depending on your condition, you will be treated before or after other patients. It is the physician’s duty to give priority to serious emergencies and life-threatening conditions.
Emergency Department & your child
If you take your child to the Emergency Department, the physicians and nurses not only look at the injury of your child, but also at the safety and well-being of the child. We are required to do so based on the national “Domestic Violence and Child Abuse” reporting code.
An alert form is used for this purpose, which is part of your child’s medical file. If there is a reason based on the findings, the physician can contact other care providers involved with your child.
If there are concerns about the well-being or safety of your child, the physician will discuss them with you.
Examination and treatment
The specialist will assess whether examination or treatment is required. For some examinations or treatments you need to have an empty stomach. Waiting for the result of an examination can also take a long time. Consequently, it is always best not to eat and drink anything while you wait; please first consult the nurse in this regard. The specialist may find it necessary for you to be admitted to the hospital. It may take some time before you are taken to the nursing ward, as we need time to process your admission.
Back home
Fortunately, most of the patients can go back home after visiting the Emergency Department. You will receive a copy of your outpatient card for your family physician or, if you are referred to a specialist, you can give him/her this copy so that the specialist knows about your visit to the Emergency Department. If new symptoms arise later, please contact your family physician.
Location Emergency Department
