Emergency care

Emergency care is the treatment of unexpected, severe medical injuries or infections. It is typically delivered in an emergency room or an ambulance. Our emergency medicine physicians stabilize your condition as quickly as possible to prepare you for the next step of care or discharge.

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Emergency room in Florida's Treasure Coast

When you need emergency care fast, HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital offers experienced emergency care on the Treasure Coast.

Here, our trauma center and pediatric emergency room are on site — so everyone in your family receives the care they need.

When you choose either our main hospital emergency room or our freestanding emergency room in Vero Beach, Florida, you can expect expert emergency care from a team of committed doctors, nurses and support personnel.

Related Specialties

Learn more about our related specialties

Trauma center

High-quality emergency care

To ensure you receive the best possible emergency care, we are proud to offer a variety of emergency services and features at our hospital.

Pediatric emergency room

Our pediatric emergency room is the first and only one of its kind in the Treasure Coast region of Florida. Here, our pediatric team is standing by, ready to work together to ensure you and your child feel comfortable with their care.

Our trained physicians understand children have unique medical needs, especially when it comes to emergency care. Our staff is specially trained to meet those needs, and our pediatric emergency room has equipment and tools made specifically for children.

Trauma center

At our Level II Trauma Center, our goal is to provide the best care possible to acutely injured patients. Our trauma center has a multidisciplinary team that includes:

Pre-hospital personnel
Emergency room doctors
Nurses
Trauma surgeons
Specialty physicians

This collaborative approach allows us to handle even the most critical injuries, all while providing you with compassionate, expert care.

FastTrack ER

During the screening process, some patients may be eligible for our FastTrack ER program, in which we treat less serious illnesses and injuries in a special area of our emergency department.

The FastTrack ER isn't a walk-in clinic — it's an extension of our emergency room for less critical emergencies. If you’re admitted as a FastTrack ER patient and later need more urgent care, we can quickly adjust your treatment plan and admit you to the hospital if needed.

Where is the FastTrack ER?

The FastTrack ER is located within our main emergency room. All patients use the same entrance and check-in area.

When is the FastTrack ER open?

The FastTrack ER is open daily from 9:00am to 11:00pm; however, our main emergency room and trauma center are open 24 hours a day.

Will I see a doctor at the FastTrack ER?

All patients at our FastTrack ER are seen by a qualified medical professional — either a doctor of medicine, doctor of osteopathy, physician assistant (PA) or advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP). Our patients also work with nurses and other team members.

What conditions do you treat at the FastTrack ER?

Our FastTrack ER provides emergency care for minor illnesses and injuries, such as:

Back pain
Bites, stings and allergic reactions
Burning or infrequent urination
Constipation or diarrhea
Coughs
Cuts
Ear issues
Rashes
Sore throats
Suture removals
Wound checks

Freestanding emergency room

HCA Florida Vero Beach Emergency, our freestanding emergency room near Florida's Indian River and St. Lucie counties, provides immediate 24-hour care.

This new facility includes 12 beds, a trauma bay and mobile imaging technologies, offering you:

Access to physicians affiliated with HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital
Another convenient location for high-quality emergency care
Short wait times

Our emergency room wait times

When it comes to emergency care, our goal is to continually work toward enhancing the care you receive, while reducing our wait times. This ensures you get the care you need, when you need it most.

Our wait times are updated every 30 minutes and are available on our website.

To find out the wait times of the HCA Florida emergency room nearest to you, check the top of our website or text "ER" to 32222.

Note: Message and data rates may apply. Emergency room wait times are approximate and provided for informational purposes only.

When to go to the emergency room

We understand it can be hard to know what type of medical care you need, like whether you should go to the emergency room or wait for your doctor's office to open.

However, we want you to feel secure about your choice for care, which is why we've created a list of symptoms that may indicate you need to visit the emergency room:

Back pain, when it is unbearable or accompanied by fever, numbness, weakness, confusion, slurred speech, vision loss or loss of control over bladder or bowels
Broken bones, when the pain is severe or there is a visible deformity
Chest pain, when it is crushing or squeezing and accompanied by other heart attack symptoms, such as shortness of breath or nausea
Concussion, when you have lost consciousness, even briefly, or experience amnesia, vomiting, slurred speech or a seizure
Flu, when symptoms become severe, such as having trouble breathing, vomiting uncontrollably or becoming dehydrated
Side pain, when it is severe and occurs in the lower right stomach, side or back or is accompanied by fever, nausea, diarrhea or blood in the urine
Stomach pain, when accompanied by a hard or tender stomach, nausea, shortness of breath, fever or irregular heartbeat
Trouble breathing, when breathing stops, is noisy or high-pitched and comes with pain in the chest or severe shortness of breath

If you are unsure if your symptoms require an emergency room visit, you can speak to a nurse 24/7 by calling our Consult-A-Nurse® team at (772) 742-9050.

What to expect at the emergency room

When you get to the emergency room, one of our triage nurses will assess your symptoms and vital signs. Next, a registration clerk will collect your insurance card (if available) and other information.

We medically screen, evaluate and stabilize all patients — whether or not they have insurance or are able to pay.

Anyone who has severe, life-threatening illnesses or injuries will be treated first. Everyone else will be treated in the order they arrive.

Before discharge, we encourage you to ask our emergency care teams any questions you have. It is also useful for you to keep all of your paperwork, discharge information and medicines or prescriptions together after you leave the emergency room.

After discharge, our emergency department staff will reach out to your primary care provider to ensure they are updated on your care.