The Emergency Department at Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital is staffed 24/7 by physicians and registered nurses who are specially trained in emergency medicine to provide high quality services and compassionate care to patients of all ages, from infants to geriatrics, for any condition.

Our Emergency Department has a wide range of equipment and offers patients access to extensive diagnostic testing labs and technology, emergency medical physicians, specially trained nurses, and other health care professionals. Air ambulance transport is available for critical cases that need to be transferred to a higher level of care. The Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital is the designated Level III Trauma Center for the North Hawaii region.

Our Services

The Emergency Department at Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and is capable of meeting any emergency medical or surgical need for patients of all ages.  Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital is a 35-bed acute care hospital, offering hospitalist services, labs, and a 24-hour Imaging Department for x-rays, CAT scans, MRI, and ultrasounds. Other hospital services include cardiopulmonary, orthopedic, cardiology, gynecologic and obstetric services, primary care, cancer, and surgical services. 

What to Expect When You Arrive

When you arrive for treatment at the Emergency Department, your condition will be evaluated by a physician. The Emergency Department physician may order tests necessary to diagnose your condition (including lab tests, x-rays, etc.), and if you need specialty treatment, one of our consulting specialists will be called. Because of the nature of emergency medicine, the most critically ill or injured will be seen first. If you are waiting, you will be kept updated as to when you can be expected to be seen.

Please be prepared to provide pertinent information about your medical history including medicines you are taking, allergies, and a summary of your past illnesses, injuries and surgeries. This information allows our medical team to give you appropriate treatment.

Trauma Services

Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital is the designated Level III Trauma Center for the North Hawaii region. As a Level III Trauma Center, we take care of trauma patients of all ages with 24-hour immediate coverage by emergency medicine physicians and the availability of general surgeons and anesthesiologists. We provide prompt assessment, resuscitation, emergency operations, and stabilization, in addition to arranging patient transfers to a higher level trauma center on Oahu for more advanced care.

Designation as a Level III Trauma Center allows us to be a treatment center for injured patients that would otherwise be diverted to trauma centers located over an hour or more away. Our hospital’s central location on Hawaii Island, easily accessible helipad, and Kamuela Airport located only 1.4 miles away, provide us with an opportunity to quickly transfer patients to a definitive trauma center when necessary.

Trauma Activation

The process of a trauma activation begins when injury details are relayed to Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital by paramedics on the scene. Based on set criteria, our multidisciplinary trauma team is activated, enabling all necessary services and resources to respond and provide immediate care to the patient from the moment they arrive.

Our team uses a multidisciplinary approach to patient care to optimize the outcomes of injured patients. This encompasses prompt care from emergency services, surgical services, anesthesia, radiology, laboratory, patient care services, cardiopulmonary services, security, and social services.

Advanced Stroke Care With Telemedicine

Stroke patients arriving at the Emergency Department at Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital now have almost instant access to state-of-the-art stroke treatment thanks to integrated technology provided by The Queen’s Health Systems. Our new stroke treatment program allows patients to be evaluated and treated by stroke experts while staying at their local hospital in their own community. The Queen’s North Hawai‘i Community Hospital is the first hospital in the state to use brand new telecommunications technology that links directly into the network at The Queen’s Medical Center.

When minutes count, having access to stroke neurologists can save patients from significant loss of brain function. Stroke is the leading cause of chronic disability in adults and the third leading cause of death in Hawaii. Treatment is available with clot buster medications but only if patients quickly arrive in the Emergency Department.