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Gastrointestinal (GI) bleed. Cancer. Myocardial infarction (MI). Constipation. These are just some of the conditions that could present as abdominal pain in ED patients.
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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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Not content with a 30-minute guarantee that it has been offering its ED patients for six years, Michigan's Oakwood Healthcare System has declared that patients will now be seen as soon as they walk though the ED doors. So far, so good, say ED staffers, who concede that the new approach could not have been accomplished by the ED alone.
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Members of the ED staff at Blount Memorial Hospital in Maryville, TN, have cut the door-to-doc time from one hour to 45 minutes, and they hope to get it below 30 minutes, following a new initiative using a process called multivariable testing (MVT).
