WTBS 14 Improving Patient Flow in the ED: 7 Strategies for Nurses

It is both an evidence-based truth and almost a mantra of emergency department (ED) providers and leaders that the major cause of ED overcrowding is boarded patients. Yet 10 years of experience in more than 70 EDs has shown that impressive flow gains can be achieved despite a poor flow of admitted patients out of the ED. While I have always been and continue to be an advocate for improved admission processes and better ED resources, these issues should never excuse us from exploring our own role in improving flow in our departments. Fostering a culture in which all staff are committed to improving care through better flow will trump petty concerns about hierarchies and role descriptions—and it will improve morale.

By |2020-05-15T09:21:08-04:00January 1st, 2018|Categories: EM Cases, Waiting to be Seen|Tags: , , , |2 Comments

WTBS 5 Emergency Physician Speed Part 2 – Solutions to Physician Productivity

In Emergency Physician Speed How Fast is Fast Enough – Part I, Dr. David Petrie addressed the issue of physician productivity (patients per hour, or PPH), the many factors that influence how quickly emergency physicians can process patients, and some of the tradeoffs between speed and quality. He also discussed the processing rate of the entire ED and introduced the concepts of surge capacity and the effect of crowding on safety if the ED can’t keep up. In this follow-up blog, Dr. Petrie expands on the departmental aspects of throughput and safety, and calls on policy-makers to recognize the need to include surge capacity in planning efforts. He also makes some powerful arguments about the related issues of so-called 'inappropriate visits' and the changing role of the ED. In this post - Emergency Physician Speed Part 2 - Solutions to Physician Productivity , he also brilliantly dismantles some common myths about ED visits — and drivers of costs.

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