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Schull MJ, Vermeulen M, Slaughter G, et al. Emergency department crowding and thrombolysis delays in acute myocardial infarction. Ann Emerg Med; in press.
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Eventually, hospitals will develop geriatric EDs, just as many now have pediatric EDs, predicts Lowell Gerson, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine in Rootstown.
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A new report from the Urgent Matters Learning Network, Bursting at the Seams: Improving Patient Flow to Help Americas Emergency Departments, identifies best practices from 10 hospitals selected as participants in an initiative to help hospitals eliminate ED crowding. Each participating hospital developed and implemented strategies to improve patient flow through the ED and to reduce overcrowding. EDM looks behind the results to the strategies and methods that achieved them. With this issue, we begin a series of articles that will examine just what made these programs special and successful.
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It may seem logical to blame your overcrowding problems on understaffing, but as the ED staff at the 302-bed North Shore University Hospital at Forest Hills in Queens, NY, found out, that may not always lead you to the root of your problems. Learning that lesson, and finding the real cause of their problems, enabled them to slash their average cycle time from 187 minutes to 118 minutes.
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As the ED staff at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allen-town, PA, have learned, its how you respond to benchmarking data that determines success. For example, to speed up admissions, it was necessary to address virtual capacity issues.
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A new planning guide funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is designed to help communities make sure they have needed drugs and vaccines in the event of a natural epidemic or bioterrorist attack.
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If several patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) started coming into your ED, would you be prepared to separate them? Could you triage to alternative off-site areas, if needed? As of Jan. 1, 2005, youd better be prepared.
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A 73-year-old woman who lives at home with her husband presented at the ED with progressive weakness and difficulty walking. Her chief complaint: My legs just feel weak. After an extensive work-up, including a CAT scan, there were no clear answers, and she was admitted for further evaluation.
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A new report from the Urgent Matters Learning Network titled Bursting at the Seams: Improving Patient Flow to Help Americas Emergency Departments, describes the experiences of 10 hospitals selected for an initiative to help hospitals eliminate ED overcrowding. Of the 10, four received a special $250,000 grant for demonstrator projects.
