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Are you struggling to cut delays in getting lab test results? Lab delays can have a dramatic impact on patient flow.
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A man with a mild stomachache, a woman reporting neck pain days after a motor vehicle accident, and a teenager with an ankle injury. Would these patients be triaged as low acuity and sent to your EDs waiting room?
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Could mistakes made in your ED cause an injured elderly patient to go into fluid overload or become hypothermic? Common errors in nursing practice can be life-threatening for these patients, says Karen Hayes, PhD, ARNP, assistant professor at the School of Nursing at Wichita (KS) State University.
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When a physician asks for additional suture material for wound repair and the nurse realizes there is none left, the doctor explodes in anger.
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Failing to document the medications a patient currently is taking. Nurses mixing IV piggybacks. Storing drugs in concentrated form.
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ED nurses will face even greater responsibility for compliance under the 2006 National Patient Safety Goals just unveiled by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
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Its 3 a.m., and a well-dressed man and woman approach the triage nurse with official-looking clipboards in hand. They claim to be surveyors from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and they demand to be shown your medication storage areas.
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When a patient complains of shortness of breath, congestive heart failure (CHF) may be one of the first things you suspect, but a definitive diagnosis can be difficult. Now a new blood test that measures a cardiac biomarker, the terminal prohormone of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), can give you an answer within minutes.
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While the two new requirements involving hand-offs and medication labeling are the most obvious changes in the 2006 National Patient Safety Goals just released by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, there are other, more subtle changes that also are critically important for nurse managers to know about.
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The diagnosis of meningitis was clear: The one-month-old infant showed classic signs and symptoms. A lumbar puncture was ordered, but antibiotics werent given until several hours later, and the child suffered severe brain damage. The result of the ensuing malpractice lawsuit: A $1 million settlement.
