Getting to see emergency room staff at Prime Healthcare St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin is no longer a time-guessing game when it comes to non-life-threatening issues.

Thanks to FastTrackCare, an automated online ER scheduling system that went live Sept. 3, patients can not only schedule a visit time but will be notified if the wait time gets shortened or extended so they can plan to arrive earlier or later.

“It’s a very user friendly system both for patients in the community and staff on the receiving end,” Emergency Department Manager Julia Clifford said.

The technology allows patients to select an approximate time to be seen in the ER, eliminating the need to spend sometimes hours in the waiting room until a doctor or nurse is available, a news release said. Time slots from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily are available, and the system has the capacity to open up slots overnight as needed.

Patients access the site through the hospital’s home website, saintjosephmedicalcenter.com, fill out a brief, secure form that does not need a username, password or health insurance information, Clifford said.

This screenshot from the FastTrackCare appointment system for Prime Healthcare St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin shows what times were available for patients to come in for emergency room treatment about 1:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. (Prime Healthcare St. Joseph Hospital)

“It requires minimal information for registration,” Clifford said. ”If people don’t show up, it does not take time away from the ER provider seeing other patients or other patients needing care.”

FastTrackCare is intended only for emergencies that don’t pose a threat to life or limb, she said. Someone with critical symptoms, such as a severe injury, chest pain, shortness of breath, or signs of stroke or heart attack, should call 911.

“It’s best suited for non-life-threatening needs such as back pain, superficial lacerations, pink eye, cough, cold and minor pediatric needs, to name a few,” Clifford said. “On the registration page, it does prompt you to call 911 if it is an urgent medical emergency instead of booking a slot.”

St. Joseph, previously owned by Ascension, was sold to California-based Prime Healthcare in March. Prime hospitals have been using FastTrackCare for more than six years but it is new to the system’s Illinois emergency rooms, Clifford said.

It helps staff organize their physician and nurse treatment teams so they can see FastTrackCare patients without disrupting care to the main ER, she said. It also potentially reduces the exposure risks from communicable diseases.

“It allows the ER staff to plan for isolation rooms should they need them to prevent spread of a communicable disease,” Clifford said.

“It also helps registration to be able to identify these patients and move them out of the waiting room faster as to minimize exposure to other patients. Additionally, it helps staff to prepare PPE protection and treatment items that may be needed, helping to minimize entering and existing the patient’s room and exposing others.”

FastTrackCare doesn’t involve any AI chatbot interaction, she said. Because the system is user-friendly and efficient in its use of time slots, it helps coordinate the number of cases with the number available of staff available, she said.

Clifford could not say what the system cost to implement at St. Joseph, but the return on investment justifies the expense given the decreased time needed to get people in to see medical personnel, increased registration efficiency and the quicker triage process.

“Additionally, it allows the community to plan for their visits, thus reducing time in the waiting room and possibly bringing more patients to the ER,” she said.

Because St. Joseph doesn’t currently have any urgent care facilities, FastTrackCare allows the 184-bed hospital to use the ER in an urgent care manner, Clifford said.

Elgin’s other medical facility, Advocate Sherman Hospital, does not have an ER scheduling system but does offer immediate care centers in Elgin and South Elgin through which online and walk-in appointments can be made and wait times are available.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/09/12/elgin-joseph-hospital-er-appointments-fasttrack/