ED Management 2003-07-01

Are you losing nurses due to violence in your ED? You should take action now!

If youre having trouble retaining and recruiting ED nurses, it may be time to closely examine your violence prevention strategies. The University of Alberta (Canada) Faculty of Nursing surveyed more than 9,000 nurses.

Initial management of potential suicidal/homicidal or potentially violent patients

Purpose: To establish staff guidelines for the management of patients in need of a psychiatric assessment that will help ensure the safety of patients and staff in the Emergency Department.

Northwest Community Hospital ‘Mr. Strong’ Procedure

Purpose: To maintain safety and security for all individuals in the hospital environment, in the least restrictive and safest way during an episode of escalation.

New screening guidelines cut hours off delays

If a chronic schizophrenic with recurrent hallucinations or a suicidal college student comes to your ED, what comes to mind as the most immediate need? Is it an immediate mental health consultation or a time-consuming assortment of expensive diagnostic tests?

Include your community in disaster planning

You may have an effective, well-rehearsed disaster plan, but have you included the community in your planning? A report from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations makes it clear that surveyors will be looking for evidence that you have done so.

New tool avoids sticking patients 10-15 times

It happens in every ED: Patients with difficult line access are stuck multiple times some as many as 10-15 times in an attempt to access an intravenous (IV) line.

Cost-Saving Tip

Save up to $700,000 by making this change

EMTALA Q&A

Editors note: This column is part of an ongoing series that will address reader questions about the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).

Act now to prepare for new E/M coding regs

Your reimbursement will change dramatically when nationally uniform facility assessment criteria are implemented by Medicare, probably in January 2004, predicts Caral Edelberg, CPC, CCS-P, president of Medical Management Resources in Jacksonville, FL. This will be huge news for the ED, she predicts.

Report: EDs are at high risk for dosage errors

More dosage errors are made in the ED than other hospital departments, and fewer potential dosage errors are caught before they occur, according to a new report from the Rockville, MD-based United States Pharmacopeia (USP), which analyzed medication error reports submitted to its national database in 2001.

ED Management – July 1, 2003

July 1, 2003