-
The EDs of the futures will look "far more like critical care centers," predicts Thom A. Mayer, MD, FACEP, president and CEO of Best Practices an emergency medicine, pediatric emergency medicine, and physician leadership management firm based in Fairfax, VA.
-
While the long-term future for emergency medicine is bright, ED managers and their staffs will see some tough times in the short term, predicts Thom Mayer, MD, FACEP, president and CEO of Best Practices, an emergency medicine, pediatric emergency medicine, and physician leadership management firm based in Fairfax, VA.
-
Despite the challenges of overcrowding, underfunding, and staff shortages, experts say emergency medicine has made great progress in the last 20 years.
-
Experts in emergency medicine often have correctly identified key challenges over the past 20 years; unfortunately, they have not been as adept at addressing them, say observers. However, the lessons learned at least point the way to future improvement, they add.
-
Among the key challenges that have developed in the past 20 years and have not yet been addressed is the failure of the community's mental health system, according to James J. Augustine, MD, FACEP, director of clinical operations at Emergency Medicine Physicians, an emergency physician partnership group in Canton, OH.
-
The current economic crisis is creating "strenuous times for ED leaders because all prudence will be necessary," notes Steven J. Davidson, MD, MBA, FACEP, chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY. "They are going to be challenged to be creative in finding ways to do things," he says.
-
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed 10 national voluntary consensus standards for hospital-based ED care, with the goal of reducing overcrowding, decreasing patient wait time, and improving quality of care.
-
It was too good to last. In the 2007 ED Management Salary Survey, we noted that hospital administrators were reacting to the realities of supply and demand and showing a willingness to be more generous with salary increases.
-
The Emergency Severity Index (ESI) Version 4 is widely accepted as a reliable triage tool for adults. There is now more evidence of its effectiveness in children. When researchers asked ED physicians and nurses to assign a triage level to 20 pediatric case scenarios, they found that the agreement rate was 83%.
-
Have you struggled with compliance with The Joint Commission's standards for use of verbal orders in your ED? According to the most recent statistics, 40% of hospitals were noncompliant with requirements for qualified staff to record and receive verbal orders (standard RC.02.03.07) during surveys in the first half of 2009.
