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stouffville suntribune thursday march 2 2006 21 er doc keeps it cool cover story by chris traber photography by sjoerd witteveen as cool and comforting as the underside of a pillow dr david austin has the ideal tempera ment for a difficult job its said that if youre unfortunate enough to be in his er youd be lucky to be attended by the veteran specialist who has spent the past 16 years of his 25year career as chief of emergency medicine at markham stouffville hos pital he manages life threatening situa tions brilliantly and hes very calm said pauline brillinger patient registra tion and fast track clinic manager dr austin is extremely knowledge able offered acute medical systems director molly court a colleague since the hospital opened in 1990 hes a calming influence on the team and patients hes not only extremely com petent hes compassionate heady endorsements undoubtedly deserved like his responsibilities are accepted in stride with years of emergency medicine experience the torontoborn married father of two demonstrates a refresh ing almost blase attitude reserved for the supremely confident gifted and accomplished you name it and weve dealt with it said the physician in his quiet mod ulated tone you think of stuff thats hard to believe and weve seen it some gruesome stuff too needing to make sense of turmoil and wanting to ease patients fear and suffering is a prerequisite for emer gency professionals he says chaos and crisis management are ways of life for us you never know what were going to deal with the only thing the people who come here have in common is that they werent planning to be here that nonetheless is the life he always sought and continues to cher ish i always had an interest in science and how it could help people medicine was a good fit for me he said after earning his medical degree at the university young dr austin com pleted postgraduate studies in emer gency medicine at londons university of western ontario i started in general surgery but it wasnt the lifestyle i wanted to embracehe recalled my personality as such is that i like the immediate gratification of a situation deal with it and move on emergency medicine appealed to me as both a job and lifestyle when markham stouffville hospital opened dr austin was brought on board as the first chief of emergency were still not one of the busiest ers around compared to st mikes and sunnybrook but theres a significant increase in the number of visits and the acuity of patients the population is aging and ambulances arrive from other communities with growth comes demand and challenges at peak periods a pair of physicians approximately 10 nurses plus support staff tend to dozens of patients each of whom according to dr austin believes their case should be a priority getting people who need to be admitted is a challenge dr austin said as long as there are inpatient beds it flows well when there arent any which is frequently we keep patients on our 20 er stretchers that creates a ripple effect wait time issues or crowding as its known in er vernacular continue no one wants to wait he said one of the difficulties for us is meeting the expectations of everyone in the er patients come here with expectations and theyre not unreasonable the average wait time to see a doctor is about two hours among the network weve got one of the lowest average wait times his most trying time was during the sars outbreak in 2003 it was a new disease no one had dealt with before and we were learning on a day to day basis he remembered right in the middle of the outbreak scarborough grace hospital shut down and we got a lot of their patients it was a frightening time to work in a hospital the episode added cache to dr austins growing reputation throughout sars we looked to him frequently for information on infection control ms court said he was steady it was probably the tough est crisis of our career but he was there insuring our safety using best practices and explaining everything in his under standable way dr david austin chief of emergency medicine at markham stouffville hospital is described as being competent and compassionate flyers inserts for thurs march 2 2006 2001 audio video blinds for you canadian tire sobeys tsukiji sushi village yip montessori trade world realty iga longos sears shoppers drug mart dominion loblaws ap price chopper marks work wearhoilse maytag toys r us home depot future shop staples- business depot food basics reids dairy sport mart mdg speedy muffler home outfitters michaels real canadian superstore unilever dove radio shack best buy no one delivers results lite we do to find out more about how to reach your target market and get the same great response from your flyer distributions as these customers call us today selected areas only ffitribune 9055131717 craft show distinct designs from premier crafters artisans gift suppliers saturday march 4 2006 10am 5pm sunday march 5 2006 10am 4pm richmond green sports 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