Emergency Department

Martin General Hospital offers emergency care services when you need them most. The emergency department team is ready to assist you in emergency situations.

The emergency department provides 24/7 care, serving more than 14,000 patients each year.

What can you expect?

Upon arrival, a patient access representative will ask for your name and the reason for your visit. He or she will also notify the staff of your arrival. You will then be taken to an examination room to be assessed by a triage nurse who will take your vital signs and ask you questions about any current medications and your medical history. Immediate bedding is a process that was recently implemented at Martin General Hospital.

After the physician sees you, you can expect to wait for test results and the final word on treatment to see if you will need to be admitted to the hospital for further evaluation or if you are ready to be discharged. If the ER physician determines that you need to be admitted to the hospital, we will contact your primary physician or an on-call physician if you don't have one. They are then responsible for your care after you leave the ER.

Test results

Test result wait times vary from one test to another but you can expect anywhere from 15 minutes for a urine test to one hour for an ultrasound or CT scan.

Follow-up care

When you are discharged, you'll receive instructions on follow-up care—feel free to ask questions if you don't understand. Your doctor or nurse will go over any medications prescribed and let you know if you need to see any specialists for further examination.

We encourage you to let us know about your emergency room experience and you may receive a follow-up call about your visit. We continually strive to improve the patient experience and your thoughts are an important part of the process.

Introducing Your New and Improved Martin General Hospital Emergency Department

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with Martin General Emergency Physicians providing emergency department physician staffing and ED management services. Our ED Physicians are aligned with Martin General Hospital and committed to bringing Eastern North Carolina community members the ultimate in emergency care; it is the expectation that patients will be seen by the physician within 30 minutes of arrival and patients will understand their medical diagnosis, treatment plan and discharge instructions. Our patients will always be very satisfied with the care and services received at MGH. Our goal is a two hour average visit in our ED and patients will wait no longer than one hour to be admitted and placed in our newly renovated, spacious, private rooms.

For an emergency, please dial 911.