Nurse-Led Single Line Referral Program

It is 13:30 on a typical Monday afternoon in southwest Missouri. Patients and their families occupy the waiting room of the Mercy Springfield emergency and trauma department, hoping to be seen as soon as possible. Babies cry as nervous mothers pat their backs, flu patients adjust their masks, and jersey-wearing teens apply ice packs to injured limbs, while ambulance bays fill with trauma patients, and the air ambulance helicopter is landing on the hospital helicopter pad. The ability to meet our community's need, in this nationally recognized, 47-bed emergency and trauma department, is one that is repeated daily in what can truly be called Mercy Springfield's front door.