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The New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA) has published the first installment of Planning today for a pandemic tomorrow, a guide that hospitals can use to develop or assess a pandemic flu response plan. The guide includes the following topics:
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In 1999, "ER One," a high-tech ED designed for optimal response to mass casualty events, was just a gleam in the eye of Mark Smith, MD, FACEP, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Washington (DC) Hospital Center.
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A new process for handlings calls from primary care physicians not only has improved ED communications at Doctors Hospital in Columbus, OH, but it also has boosted relations with family physicians in the community thanks in no small part to a 30-minute guarantee offered for those doctors' patients.
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The ED at Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Ranson, WV, has reduced its rate of patients who leave without being seen (LWBS) by 50% with the addition of a mobile unit located immediately outside the main department.
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Since the implementation of National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) dealing with medication reconciliation in 2005, The Joint Commission has received a steady stream of feedback from the medical community. Emergency medicine experts and organizations, in particular, have complained that the goals were unclear and made compliance difficult.
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The Joint Commission has added an initial set of seven hospital outpatient measures to its current complement of core measure sets that may be used to satisfy ORYX performance measurement requirements.
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The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) in Laurel, MD, and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in Irving, TX, have jointly published the Guideline for the Performance of the FAST (Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma) Examination.
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A proactive communications effort, before and after the creating of the new ED patient representative position at St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson, AZ, has helped smooth the transition for ED staff, patients, and families, says Cassandra Pundt, RN, CEN. Pundt had been the ED nurse manager for 10 years when she created and filled the new position.
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Good ED managers are adept at identifying problems in their department and coming up with innovative solutions, but how many of those solutions involve a title and position change for the managers themselves?
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After receiving input from several medical organizations and other interested parties during a Sept. 25, 2007, summit on medication reconciliation, The Joint Commission is digesting that feedback and crafting a response.