Clinical Services
Emergency Care Unit
Philosophy
Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We NEVER close our doors to an ambulance and we NEVER divert patients who need us. We have worked very hard to make our ECU the most efficient in Central New York and our waiting times have consistently been the lowest in the area. Also, we’re committed to providing the best care to the area. We’ve done this by making a commitment to increase doctor hours due to the increase in the acuity rate. We provide 36 hours of doctor coverage per day and 12 hours of Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner coverage per day.Services
Fast TrackA system that quickly attends to patients with minor emergencies. Minor emergencies are considered sprains, lacerations, sore throats, rashes or insect bites. AMH has its own staff for Fast Track service, allowing for ECU physicians to spend more time with serious or critical cases and cut down on the waiting time for minor emergency patients.
When a patient comes into the ECU with a minor emergency, an experienced triage nurse will first determine which service best suits your needs. Then the patient is taken directly to a room and a full registration is done bedside. After the registration, the patient is cared for by a Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner, highly trained health care professionals who treat and medicate patients under the supervision of an ECU physician.
The average length of stay in an emergency room in New York State is just under four hours. In large cities, length of stay times are between four and six hours. At AMH, since the inception of the Fast Track service, length of stay times are just more than three hours. In addition to the Fast Track service, AMH ECU has also decreased its X-ray and laboratory turnaround time for even quicker service to our patients.
Community Ultra Sound
As part of our examinations, we often do an ultra sound on our patients to be able to make a more precise diagnosis, allowing our staff to provide better care to our patients. Ultrasound testing is fast becoming an integral part of an Emergency physician’s skills. Physicians in Emergency Medicine Residency Programs today are all being trained in performing Ultrasound studies. Doing bedside Emergency Department (ED) Ultrasound has been shown to increase department efficiency and to improve patient care by making more rapid diagnoses. Recognizing this, AMH has acquired a state of the art Emergency Department sonogram machine and the ED physicians are in the training phase to become credentialed in ED ultrasound. We are one of the few Community Hospital Emergency Departments in the region to have an Ultrasound program.
Staff:
Dr. Brian Brundage
Medical School: SUNY Health Science Center, Syracuse, NY
Residency: The Williamsport Hospital, Williamsport, PA
Staff Appointment: 1992
Board Certified: Family Practice
Dr. Barb Connor
Medical School: SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, NY
Residency: SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, NY
Staff Appointment: 1985
Board Certified: Internal Medicine
Dr. John Covell
Medical School: University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH
Residency: Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA
Staff Appointment: 1990
Board Certified: Family Practice
Dr. Mary Lee DiRubbo
Medical School: State University of New York, Buffalo, NY
Residency: The University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Staff Appointment: 1999
Board Certified: Emergency Medicine
Dr. Mitchell B. Feldman
Medical School: Medical College of Wisconsin
Residency: Internal Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Staff Appointment: 2009
Board Certified: Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine
Dr. Patsy M. Iannolo
Medical School: SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, NY
Residency: Internal Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, NY
Staff Appointment: 2009
Board Certified: Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine
Dr. Walter J. Kantor
Medical School: SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Residency: Emergency Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, PA
Staff Appointment: 2009
Board Certified: Emergency Medicine
Dr. Albert Krisch
Medical School: Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, Bethesda, MD
Residency: SUNY Health Science Center, Syracuse, NY
Staff Appointment: 1995
Board Certified: Emergency Medicine
Dr. Leah Weinberg
Medical School: Davis School of Medicine/University of California, Davis, CA
Residency: SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, NY
Staff Appointment: 1988
Board Certified: Internal Medicine
Dr. Mervyn Whelan
Medical School: Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Residency: Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Staff Appointment: 1998
Board Certified: Emergency Medicine and Family Medicine
Barbara Perkins, RN
Interim Nurse Manager of the Emergency Care Unit
Contact Information
Phone: 255-7210
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