Jamie Murphy – Emergency Department Success Store

On the hunt for fast emergency care

Get care quickly with QuickER.org

If you’re looking for Jamie Murphy, look outdoors. There you’ll find the nature enthusiast camping, hunting, and fishing.

When she and her boyfriend of eight years, Phillip Lockwood, planned a trip to South Africa, the 50-year-old Midlothian resident could hardly wait. It was the trip of a lifetime, but Jamie returned to Texas feeling horrible.

She had headaches, chills, and extreme fatigue, as well as swollen lymph nodes.

“I also had three dark brown spots that were very tender,” she recalls. “They looked like insect bites.”

A few days later, her misery remained, and the brown spots had evolved into bull’s-eyes.

“I was afraid I had some terrible disease, and I wanted to see a doctor right away,” she says.

Where to find a quick cure

Jamie remembered picking up a postcard at Midlothian Movies in the Park about QuickER.org, the online emergency department (ED) check-in service at Methodist Mansfield Medical Center.

“This sounded perfect for me,” she says. “I went online, selected an appointment time, and completed the form.”

Within minutes, Jamie received an email confirmation and a telephone call. “Soon after I hit ‘submit,’ I was talking to a very nice nurse,” she says. “I was so relieved.”

Jamie and Phillip waited at home for her appointment time and then drove to Methodist Mansfield.

“When I got there, the front staff greeted me by name and asked me for a few signatures,” she recalls. “Then they took us straight back to an exam room.”

Jamie learned the source of her mysterious symptoms: South African tick fever. After a few days on antibiotics, she was feeling much better.

“This is such a great program,” Jamie says. “It’s so much more comfortable — not to mention efficient — waiting at home instead of a waiting room. I’d recommend QuickER.org and Methodist Mansfield to anyone who doesn’t want to wait to see a doctor. You can get into the ED quickly and then get back to life.”

Or, in Jamie’s case, back to the great outdoors.

Find fast relief

If you’re experiencing a non-life-threatening emergency, schedule your ED visit at Methodist Mansfield at QuickER.org.

From the fall 2014 edition of Shine magazine.