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A new study published online by the journal Health Affairs had some sobering, though perhaps not surprising, news for ED managers. Between 1997 and 2004, waits increased 36% (from 22 to 30 minutes, on average) for the more than 90,000 ED patients whose records the researchers reviewed.
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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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Following the deaths of two patients at specialty hospitals owned by physicians in both cases, the patients suffered complications following surgery, no physician was on duty, and the specialty hospitals called 9-1-1 to respond the Senate Finance Committee asked the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to evaluate patient care at 109 physician-owned specialty hospitals in the United States, and the OIG report, released in January, has raised concerns for patient safety.
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The U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VA) National Center for Ethics in Health Care launched a major ethics integration initiative in 2007, including a new component that seeks to standardize and evaluate the quality of ethics consultations.
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Increased emphasis on patients at risk for postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), enhanced information on anesthesia for pediatric patients, and focus on post-discharge PONV are three significant changes in the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia Guidelines for the Management of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting.
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The Massachusetts Hospital Association recently announced that all Massachusetts hospitals are adopting a uniform policy to not charge patients or insurers for certain serious adverse events, including wrong-site surgeries, as defined by the National Quality Forum (NQF). In doing so, Massachusetts becomes only the second state in the nation to take this voluntary action.
