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It's a common source of frustration in many EDs: leaving patients in the waiting room until a "specialty" room is available, or placing the patient in a room that doesn't have the right equipment, which delays care. That's why many EDs are investing in mobile workstations on laptops or wheeled carts.
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The minute you learn that accreditation surveyors are on site, you probably have a "wish list" of tasks that should be done immediately. At Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR, ED nurses created checklists for technicians, nurses, physicians, and health unit coordinators to use.
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Long waits are the most common cause of patient complaints in many EDs, so why not give patients a special "thank you" when wait times are long?
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When a Spanish-speaking man approached ED nurses at Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare in Memphis, TN, pointing to his chest, nurses immediately called for translation services, but the interpreter was tied up with another patient elsewhere in the hospital.
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Many emergency nurses routinely use the color-coded Broselow Pediatric Emergency tape to obtain medication dosages for pediatric patients who can't be weighed.
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When ED patients watched an educational video or read a brochure about pain assessment, the patient's self-report of pain often was lower compared to previous self-reports, says this study from St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, OH.
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AHC Media appreciates the faith you have placed in us to provide you with practical, authoritative information. As a token of our gratitude for your support, we would like to provide you with the free white paper, "The Joint Commission: What Hospitals Can Expect in 2007."
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A male physician has a well-known habit of using vulgar language and continually berating the nursing staff who all happen to be female. This behavior exposes your ED not only to high vacancy rates for nursing staff, but also significant liability risks, says Brian A. Lapps Jr., a Nashville, TN-based attorney specializing in employment law.
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A patient comes to your ED with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), the deadliest and least treatable form of stroke, which accounts for 15% of strokes and nearly half of the 164,000 stroke deaths in the United States annually. Right now, there is very little you can do for this patient, but that may change soon.
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If your ED hasnt switched to a five-level triage system yet, theres no time like the present, according to a report from the joint five-level triage task force of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA).
