Wexford Hospital Excels at Emergency Care
Long before AHN Wexford Hospital opened, Dr. Kate Latouf was thinking about her role as medical director for the new hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine, eager to take the program to the highest level of quality.
“To be able to build something from the ground up is very satisfying,” Dr. Latouf said. “The people we've hired — not only in the emergency department, but throughout the hospital — are top notch. The focus on the patient experience and the quality of care is unlike anything I've experienced before.”
Combining quality and efficiency
When it comes to delivering care quickly, the Wexford Hospital Emergency Department (ED) aims high. Patients are usually seen just 10 to 15 minutes after they arrive at the door, something Kate knows is an important part of the overall experience.
“We've worked really hard to streamline our processes and eliminate any activities that don’t add value,” she said. Input from front-line teams is used continuously to help identify areas that can be even better.
Just as good as downtown
Dr. Latouf also knows that the quality of care at AHN Wexford is going to exceed what people normally expect from a neighborhood hospital — and equal to the caliber of care delivered at Pittsburgh’s downtown hospitals.
For the longest time, folks in Pittsburgh had this sense that they had to go downtown to get really good care,” she said. “The same surgeons that operate downtown and the same emergency department doctors that you’d see at Allegheny General are now here. It speaks a lot to the commitment of AHN to bring things to the local level.”
Quality care focused on children
The AHN Wexford ED also has an in-house pediatrician on-site 24/7, two rooms that are pediatric friendly, as well as age-appropriate activities to help distract children and keep them comfortable. The goal is to be a primary hub for emergency pediatric care for the community, with high-level expertise and resources.
Linking competence with compassion
In addition to top-notch physicians and nurses and an efficient experience, Dr. Latouf also credits her team’s focus on empathy — something that’s highlighted in patient feedback.
“The touching comments are the ones where they say ‘the physician held my hand before I was put to sleep,’ or ‘the nurse gave my mother-in-law an extra blanket because she was cold.’ It’s the soft side of medicine that, as a medical director, is really rewarding to hear.”
Genuine empathy oozes throughout the ED, as well as all departments of Wexford Hospital, according to Dr. Latouf. “To say that I feel very blessed to be here is probably an understatement,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place to work and I think it’s a wonderful place for patients to get their care.”
Learn more about working at Wexford Hospital.
AHN Wexford Hospital brought new jobs that span a range of vocations to the North Hills. Join a team that is revolutionizing the patient experience by reviewing current AHN job opportunities and career opportunities for nurses.
