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Smallpox vaccine is here: Avoid 3 ‘worst-case scenarios’ in your ED

The controversial vaccination of health care workers for smallpox is here, with emergency department (ED) staff among the first to be inoculated. For the ED manager, your nightmares may include staff who are unable or unwilling to have the vaccine, staff who become ill after having the vaccine, and a situation worse than an unannounced accreditation survey: a smallpox outbreak.

Smallpox vaccination handbook available now

CDC’s Contraindications for Smallpox Vaccine

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, individuals who have any of the following conditions, or live with someone who does, should NOT get the smallpox vaccine unless they have been exposed to the smallpox virus.

Dramatic changes needed to address vaccine plan

With the smallpox vaccination program, your emergency departments (ED) operations will be affected dramatically. ED managers are scrambling to be sure that staff are fully informed, while figuring out how to avoid scheduling nightmares.

Keep your nurses from choosing another ED

In addition to fielding questions from prospective emergency department (ED) nurses about schedules and benefits, you soon may be asked Is your facility recognized by the Magnet Nursing Recognition Program?

Warning: Conflicts may result in more vacancies

If you were asked to list a reason why nurses choose to leave their workplace, benefits, salary, or work schedule probably would come to mind. However, a recent study reveals another reason that you might not initially suspect: conflict with physicians.

Use these five tips to help staff handle conflicts

As an emergency department (ED) leader, you should do the following to improve your staffs ability to avoid conflicts with each other and patients and to manage those effectively if they occur, says Tracy Sanson, MD, FACEP, assistant medical director for the department of emergency medicine at Brandon (FL) Regional Medical Center.

Novel strategies to handle nonemergent ED visits

Most patients who visit emergency departments (EDs) arent there for emergencies, according to a new report by the Evanston, IL-based health care information company Solucient.

EMTALA Q & A

Question: For our psychiatric transfers, the receiving facility generally accepts the patients via an authorizing staff person. Does a physician at our facility have to speak with a physician at the receiving facility?

ED Accreditation Update: Joint Commission urges protocols for meningitis

Meningitis is the most frequently missed diagnosis among sentinel events arising from delays in treatment in the emergency department (ED), according to a 2002 report from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and ED managers can expect surveyors to ask about strategies for handling the potentially fatal disease.

ED Accreditation Update: Surprise! Are you ready for a random survey?

Your hospital successfully earned accreditation a year ago. But how ready would you be today if a team from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations walked into your emergency department (ED) as part of a random, unannounced survey?

SFDPH Smallpox Vaccination Survey

San Francisco General Hospital's smallpox survey for ED personnel.

ED Accreditation Update: Accreditation Q & A

Question: What standard is most frequently cited for improvement during hospital surveys?

ED Management – February 1, 2003

February 1, 2003