Not long after Nancy Jackson, RN, became manager of the LincolnHealth Emergency Department this September, she got a card from the grateful mother of a young boy.

The boy was taken to the Miles Campus of LincolnHealth by his mother after he suddenly developed strong chest pains while at the beach. By the time they arrived, however, he was feeling better.

Despite the fact that he was no longer complaining of pain, an emergency physician did a thorough series of tests and found an unusual cardiac problem. A few weeks later, the boy had open heart surgery. The mom believes the care her son received at LincolnHealth may have saved his life.

Jackson, who came to LincolnHealth from MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta where she was unit coordinator of the emergency department, said part of what drew her to LincolnHealth was the chance to be part of a healthcare system and an emergency department that cares a great deal about its community.

“Our overarching goal is to provide the highest quality of care for all who show up at our door,” she said.

LincolnHealth offers both an Urgent Care Center on the St. Andrews Campus and emergency care at the Miles Campus.

The emergency department offers care for people with the most critical conditions, which often require specialty care. The Urgent Care Center offers care without an appointment for problems that need a doctor’s attention but don’t require specialty care.

In either location, providing high quality care is a balance between treating often complex conditions quickly and spending the time necessary to listen carefully to each patient. In both locations, teamwork between teams of trained emergency doctors, nurses and other staff members is vital, said Jackson.

Because the Urgent Care Center is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, it can offer a lower cost and because it doesn’t see the most critical conditions, patients are usually talking to a doctor within 15 to 17 minutes on average.

Carole Sharkey, RN, manager of the Urgent Care Center, began working in the trauma center of a large hospital in New York State in 1996, soon after she graduated from nursing school.

In addition to almost two decades of experience as an emergency department nurse, Sharkey also served in the U.S. Army Reserves as a member of the Army Nurse Corps. Her unit trained to build and operate a combat support hospital from the ground up, complete with an emergency department and operating room.

Sharkey said that as a manager, her job is to be constantly looking for ways to improve care, whether that means introducing a better process to clean instruments or offering patients a bedside television.

Because the Urgent Care Center on the St. Andrews Campus offers laboratory services as well as a radiology department with ultrasound and computed tomography (CT scan) capability, patients sometimes have to wait for test results and a television can improve the patient experience.

Whether patients receive care at the Urgent Care Center at the St. Andrews Campus or the emergency department on the Miles Campus, part of the role of LincolnHealth providers is to help them receive the follow-up care they need to avoid emergency services in the future.

Sometimes that means helping a patient who doesn’t have a primary care physician access the preventative care they need to stay healthy. In other cases that might mean ensuring that a patient is transported to a facility that provides the more specialized care they need for a complex medical condition.

“It really is about being proactive and knowing the resources out there that would best suit the situation at hand and making sure people are getting the right care in the right place,” said Jackson.