ED Management – February 1, 2007
February 1, 2007
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CMS letter causes ED concerns about 'parking' EMS patients
A July 13, 2006, letter from Thomas E. Hamilton, the director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Survey and Certification Group, about proper handling of EMS ambulance patients has caused a stir in emergency medicine circles that still reverberates today, as confusion remains about exactly what CMS meant. -
Proactive program makes low LWOT rate even lower
When is an LWOT (left without treatment) rate of 1% not good enough? Apparently, when you are the ED managers at Affinity Medical Center, Massilon, OH, campus. An aggressive new program has further reduced that rate by 37%. -
ED takes personal approach to boost satisfaction levels
The ED management team at Botsford General Hospital in Chesterfield, MO, has adopted and adapted quality improvement principles from The Studer Group, a quality improvement consulting organization in Gulf Breeze, FL, to boost its patient satisfaction rates from the high 80s to the 99th percentile. -
Hand-held ultrasound serving three EDs
The EDs at three Toronto area hospitals Mount Sinai, Toronto Western, and Toronto General now are able to perform beside ultrasounds using a hand-held device. -
EDs boost performance with web-based data system
A "homegrown" web-based tool called Web Emergency Medicine Analysis and Reporting System (WEBEMARS) has enabled ED managers at the 17 departments administered by Livingston, NJ-based Emergency Medical Associates (EMA) to readily access current data on their unit's performance, gaining valuable insights that have led to significant performance improvement. -
Shared governance keeps ED nurses, patients happy
Garnering patient satisfaction scores in the 95th percentile is impressive, but doing it for 10 consecutive years really makes people sit up and take notice. -
ED Accreditation Update: Tornado hits in middle of disaster drill, and communication helps and hinders response
A Category 3 tornado hits during a four-county disaster exercise that's been planned for two years. Although that scenario seems improbable, that's exactly what happened to hospitals in the Nashville, TN, area last year. The tornado hit the ground for 20 minutes and caused about 35 injuries and seven fatalities. -
ED Accreditation Update: Communicate everyone's role and what you plan to change
In terms of preparing your staff to handle a disaster, start by developing a good disaster plan, says Louise Kuhny, RN, MPH, MBA, CIC, associate director of standards interpretation at The Joint Commission, previously known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. -
ED Accreditation Update: New recommendations focus on mass critical care
The Working Group on Emergency Mass Critical Care has released recommendations to help EDs meet the accreditation standard that requires their facilities to prepare to respond to an influx, or the risk of an influx, of infectious patients.1 The recommendations include the following: -
ED Accreditation Update: Joint Commission allows 48-hour pharmacist review
The Joint Commission has issued an interim action that allows a pharmacist to conduct a retrospective review of medication orders within 48 hours when a pharmacist's prospective review is not performed. -
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