[Editor's note: ED Management issued an e-bulletin to readers on March 24, 2010, about health care reform's impact on EDs. We also described recent studies on the impact of health care reform in Massachusetts on ED crowding. ED Management issues such bulletins to keep readers informed of the latest developments in emergency management. If you wish to receive future ED Management bulletins, contact customer services at (800) 688-2421 or
[email protected].]
In the face of steadily increasing volumes (13,000 between 2008 and 2009), the ED at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, MD, has improved all of its operating statistics, achieving a 'door-to-bed' time of three minutes and a door-to-doc time of 21 minutes.
Did a patient wait a long time in your ED, and did that patient have an adverse outcome? If these two events can be linked together by a plaintiff's attorney, it could result in a successful malpractice lawsuit against your staff or your institution.
In a new Sentinel Event Alert, The Joint Commission focused on an issue to which ED managers are no strangers.
Health care clinicians and organizations likely will find that the new health care reform bill's positive features outweigh its drawbacks, experts say.
