-
The Joint Commission (TJC) has issued a Sentinel Event Alert urging surgery programs to take a new look at how to avoid mistakenly leaving items such as sponges, towels, and instruments in a patients body after surgery.
-
-
When patients who are over age 65 come into the emergency department at St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital in Livonia, MI, they are triaged to a 14-bed dedicated senior emergency department unit designed to meet the special needs of the senior population.
-
Keeping admitted patients on stretchers in hallways because there are no inpatient beds available is an increasing problem as emergency departments experience an increase in patients and hospitals downsize their bed capacity.
-
Last month, we reviewed the fundamentals to patient flow concepts and theories.
-
If your hospital moves discharged patients out of their room before they have transportation home or admits patients to the nursing station while they wait for a room, its time to rethink the idea, some experts say.
-
The key to avoiding emergency department boarding is to move patients through the continuum as quickly and safely as possible.
-
Smartphones, laptops, and tablets are everywhere. The convenience of mobile devices has made healthcare documentation, follow up, and communication simpler and faster.
-
The patient access department has been the facilitator of discharge calls to emergency department (ED) patients for several years, and customer service has improved dramatically as a result, reports Cynthia Norman-Bey, director of patient access services and the Private Branch Exchange Call Center at Glendale (CA) Adventist Medical Center.
-
Because the needs of the senior population are different from the needs of younger patients, hospitals should make changes to create an emergency department geared to the needs of seniors, says William Thomas, MD, an elder care expert who is working with Livonia, MI-based Trinity Health on geriatric issues and development of the senior emergency departments.