Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 4, 1995                   TAG: 9506050064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IT WAS A KIND OF EMERGENCY GATHERING

But advances in health care weren't the most-discussed topic of the evening. The medical professionals were sharing old times and catching up on new experiences at the first-ever reunion of the Roanoke Community Hospital emergency unit.

"It's like a thousand years of experience in this room tonight," said Lynne Kiser, staff nurse and reunion coordinator. She said that some of the nearly 50 attending the reunion had almost 25 years with the hospital. "It's kind of like a family reunion," Kiser said.

A few were not able to make it to the event, however. As people entered the room, they were greeted by a memorial to a friend: Dixie Lee Staton, an ER nurse for about 16 years. Staton died of breast cancer in 1992.

Some have been gone from the ER for a long time, while others are still there. Those who remain had plenty to say about changes over the past two years.

Sandy Ransome, an ER nurse for about 20 years, said the number of patients has gone up recently and the atmosphere is different from a few years ago. Community Hospital used to have a Level One trauma designation, taking all types of cases with a trauma team in place at all times. Although it still takes these cases, it is now focused more on pediatric or obstetric-gynecological emergencies.

Roanoke Memorial is now the only Level One trauma center in the area.

Acute cases such as gunshot and stabbing victims made the ER atmosphere more high-pressure, Ransome said. Now the ER only gets those cases when patients come in on their own.

"We miss that," Ransome said. "The people back then saw the trauma, but now they disperse it out more."

Others who no longer work in Community Hospital's emergency room remember it only as a Level One trauma center. And the experiences shared, they say, brought them close.

"It is a family," said Dr. Young Kim, who retired in 1993 after 21 years. "We confronted many difficult and many joyful occasions," he said. "We were very close as friends and colleagues."

"It's a very unique relationship," said ER receptionist Shari Young. "We are under tremendous stress and dependent so much upon each other."

Young, who has worked in ER for six years, said she feels a part of two generations at the hospital. "There has been so much restructuring, and there is a lot more [personnel] turnover," she said. And although Young said she still enjoys her work in the "new generation" of emergency room staff, she is "very proud to be part of the old."