The next time you head for the local hospital emergency room for treatment, you better have a real emergency, or you may have to pay up-front and you could be in for a long wait.

Starting last night, Piedmont Fayette Hospital began handling patients a little differently in its emergency department.

After receiving a medical assessment from an emergency physician, patients with “non-emergent” injuries or conditions will be offered a choice, according to hospital spokesperson Ryan Duffy.

They can choose to remain in the ER — with a probable extended wait — or visit their primary care provider or another clinic that can help them.

Those choosing to leave the ER will be given referrals to other places where they can get treatment, Duffy said. Indigent patients with non-emergencies have other options in the Atlanta area for treatment, she noted.

Non-emergent patients who elect to stay will be expected to pay a co-pay or deposit for their services, just as they would with their primary care provider, Duffy said.

The hospital is hoping to reduce the number of non-emergent patients it treats, which in turn will help improve services for patients experiencing true emergencies, Duffy said.

“We’re enabling ourselves to do a better job with emergent patients,” Duffy said, noting that the change should “free up resources ... so we can fully focus on our emergency patients.”

Piedmont Fayette is one of the last hospitals in the area to adopt this change, and the hospital has had some non-emergency patients treated in the ER who first sought treatment from other hospitals which have this new policy in place, Duffy said.

Some patients still come to the hospital’s ER for prescriptions, and just checking those patients in can take a half-hour, Duffy noted.

The hospital will continue to serve all patients experiencing emergencies regardless of their ability to pay, Duffy said, noting that the hospital spends on average $11 million a year providing those services.

“If you have an emergency, we are going to take care of you regardless,” Duffy said.

Non-emergent patients will be classified by guidelines contained in the federal emergency medical treatment and active labor act, Duffy said.

The hospital’s expansion last year tripled the size of the ER, which Duffy said has led to a decrease in the number of times the ER has gone on diversion status.

Diversion is a warning system that alerts patients traveling via ambulance that wait times are extended because the facility is extremely busy. Patients can then choose to be taken to another hospital if they wish.

But as the ER has grown, so has the number of patients, including those with true emergencies and those with non-emergencies, Duffy said. The hospital has extra staff on hand to deal with the surge in patients at certain times, particularly on weekend nights and also when other doctors offices are closed, Duffy said.

But even with additional staff on hand, non-emergent cases can slow things down, Duffy indicated.

“We usually don’t have an abundant amount of staff because that’s just this industry, but we do have outstanding staff,” Duffy said.