ED Management – July 1, 2004
July 1, 2004
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The Joint Commission is watching: Is your disaster response plan in order?
So youve worked long and hard at putting an effective plan in place to respond to emergency incidents, and your feel youre as prepared as you can possibly be. Then, the attorney general comes on the TV and says theres an increased threat of a terrorist attack as we approach the fall presidential campaign, and we all need to be better prepared. You look at the tube in frustration and say, But Ive done everything I can! . . . But have you? -
This new tool helps evaluate disaster plans
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has produced an evidence-based tool to help hospitals evaluate their disaster training drills. Called Evaluation of Hospital Disaster Drills: A Module-Based Approach, it is designed to help hospitals identify strengths and weaknesses in their responses during a disaster drill. -
Poor communication: Root of most patient safety ills
Poor communication in the ED can have dire consequences. In fact, poor communication between health care professionals is the root cause of nearly seven of 10 sentinel events, according to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and nowhere is communication more critical than in the ED. According to the Joint Commission, there were a total of nearly 500 sentinel events in 2003 and more than 400 in 2002. -
Radios improve EDs’ efficiency and safety
Do you want to dramatically improve ED communication? Try this innovative idea: two-way radios. -
Three strategies to reduce overcrowding and gridlock
Want to cut your diversion hours down to zero? Thats exactly what Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, CA, has done by instituting its emergency saturation triage, or Code EST. When Code EST was implemented in July 2000, diversion hours were about 130 monthly. -
How ED managers can find those elusive beds
One of the issues constantly plaguing ED managers is the hidden bed a precious commodity when a crunch is on. But there are a number of methods that can help identify those beds sooner, says Marty Karpiel, FACHE, FHFMA, president of Karpiel Consulting Group in Long Beach, CA. -
Make your ED part of a law enforcement team
An ED doctor on a SWAT team? Its not as crazy as it sounds. If you visited Augusta, GA, youd see it all the time. For the past several years, the department of emergency medicine at the Medical College of Georgia has had a thriving Tactical Emergency Medicine Support (TEMS) program that includes a formal working relationship with three local SWAT teams. -
POC tests cut screening time down to 20 minutes
How would you like to cut your blood chemistry and cardiac screening times from 90 minutes down to 20? Well, thats exactly what the ED at Saint Joseph Hospital in Lexington, KY, did by introducing point-of-care (POC) testing. -
CMS issues EMTALA interpretation guidelines
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued interpretive guidelines for the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) final rule that took effect last November. -
Trauma Reports supplement