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It may seem logical to blame your overcrowding problems on understaffing, but as the ED staff at the 302-bed North Shore University Hospital at Forest Hills in Queens, NY, found out, that may not always lead you to the root of your problems. Learning that lesson, and finding the real cause of their problems, enabled them to slash their average cycle time from 187 minutes to 118 minutes.
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A new report from the Urgent Matters Learning Network, Bursting at the Seams: Improving Patient Flow to Help Americas Emergency Departments, identifies best practices from 10 hospitals selected as participants in an initiative to help hospitals eliminate ED crowding. Each participating hospital developed and implemented strategies to improve patient flow through the ED and to reduce overcrowding. EDM looks behind the results to the strategies and methods that achieved them. With this issue, we begin a series of articles that will examine just what made these programs special and successful.
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Eventually, hospitals will develop geriatric EDs, just as many now have pediatric EDs, predicts Lowell Gerson, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine in Rootstown.
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The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have been working to align their common national hospital performance in the areas of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical infection prevention.
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The health care organization is an important resource for the continued functioning of a community. An organizations ability to deliver care, treatment, or services is threatened when it is ill-prepared to respond to an epidemic or infections likely to require expanded or extended care capabilities over a prolonged period.
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A new report from the Urgent Matters Learning Network titled Bursting at the Seams: Improving Patient Flow to Help Americas Emergency Departments, describes the experiences of 10 hospitals selected for an initiative to help hospitals eliminate ED overcrowding. Of the 10, four received a special $250,000 grant for demonstrator projects.
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A 73-year-old woman who lives at home with her husband presented at the ED with progressive weakness and difficulty walking. Her chief complaint: My legs just feel weak. After an extensive work-up, including a CAT scan, there were no clear answers, and she was admitted for further evaluation.
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Hsu J, Reed M, Brand R, et al. Cost sharing: Patient knowledge and effects on seeking emergency department care. Med Care 2004; 42:290-296. Saketkhoo DD, Bhargavan M, Sunshine JH, et al. Emergency department image interpretation services at private community hospitals. Radiology 2004; 231:190-197. Lyons MS, Lindsell CJ, Trott AT. Emergency department pelvic examination and Pap testing: Addressing patient misperceptions. Acad Emerg Med 2004; 11:405-408.
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If it seems youre seeing more patients with mental illnesses recently, youre not imagining it. The number of people with mental illness seeking care in the ED has surged recently, and the increase is taking a toll on other ED care, says J. Brian Hancock, MD, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in Irving, TX.
