Emergency room caught in the jargon jungle

A misunderstanding of medical jargon is producing friction over the virtual shutdown of services at the Hailey campus of the Wood River Medical Center.

In May 1996, when 44 percent of registered county voters went to the polls, 89 percent voted to invite the non-profit St. Luke’s Hospital to replace the area’s two public hospitals with a new private hospital near Ketchum. Voters knew then that the hospitals in both Sun Valley and Hailey would be closed to make way for the new one.

Leading up to the election, concerns surfaced about emergency care in Hailey, the valley’s largest city, and the south county.

St. Luke’s officials soothed those concerned when they announced that an "urgent care facility" would remain open in Hailey. People who heard the phrase "urgent care facility" considered it to be synonymous with "emergency room." They didn’t consider that it might be a semantic difference that could come back to haunt them.

After the announcement, the Hailey City Council unanimously endorsed St. Luke’s and the hospital site. At the time, Councilwoman Martha Burke said, "The only thing that worried me was having some kind of emergency care here in Hailey, and this answered that," she said.

Little did she know that it wasn’t the answer she sought. She—and everyone else—had been caught in the jargon jungle.

Apparently, in the world of medical jargon, "urgent" and "emergency" are not synonymous even though "The American Heritage Dictionary" defines "urgent" as "compelling immediate action, imperative."

It turns out that an "urgent care facility" is a doc-in-a-box where earaches, tummy aches and the like may be treated during daylight business hours. It is not the classic 24-hour emergency room Hailey has today.

No one from St. Luke’s, the Wood River Medical Center Board of Directors, the Sun Valley City Council or the Blaine County Commissioners—all parties to an agreement to bring St. Luke’s here—stepped forward to clear up the misunderstanding.

Even doctors and nurses—medical insiders--who attended last week’s meeting in which St. Luke’s officials announced the upcoming closures were confused.

It’s no wonder there was surprise and dismay in Hailey when St. Luke’s officials said only urgent care--not emergency care--would be provided in Hailey.

The public trusted St. Luke’s and elected officials on this issue. Jargon be damned, they should honor that trust

At this point, it’s imperative--even urgent--for St. Luke’s, Blaine County and the city of Sun Valley to demonstrate that emergency care for those in and around Hailey—the county’s largest city—will not be compromised.