New ER “Call Ahead” Tool Aims to Cut Down on Wait Times

Quick Care: The new iTriage service aims to make a patient’s visit to the emergency room easier and more convenient. Available now on the Inova Fair Oaks Hospital website, iTriage lets you provide information about yourself and your illness before you arrive at the ER.

A program now available at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital aims to make a patient’s time in the emergency room easier and more convenient. iTriage is an online service that helps cut down on wait time in the emergency room. A patient may choose to provide all the relevant information online, so when he or she arrives in the ER, a healthcare provider will be available and attend to the patient’s needs.

“With this free new service, the ER team is very clear about what to expect when the patient shows up at the ER. Also, the amount of registration time is reduced because the patient completes that online, either at a computer or on a smart phone before he or she arrives,” says Rohit A. Mahajan, Growth Officer at Inova Fair Oaks Hospital. This advance notice of the condition and reduction in registration time helps the ER team to provide efficient and customized care to the patient, adds Mahajan.

The service should be used for non-life threatening conditions only. If you have symptoms of a heart attack (chest discomfort, shortness of breath) or stroke (face drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty), call 911 immediately or go to the nearest emergency room.

Timely Treatment

• Check out the new iTriage link on the Inova Fair Oaks Hospital homepage: www.inova.org/ifoh
• Check out Inova’s mobile apps, including the Inova app which finds the closest Inova ER  and shows all Inova ER Wait Times at www.inova.org/apps