Schultz, W. M., Kelli, H. M., Lisko, J. C., Varghese, T., Shen, J., Sandesara, P., Quyyumi, A. A., Taylor, H. A., Gulati, M., Harold, J. G., Mieres, J. H., Ferdinand, K. C., Mensah, G. A., & Sperling, L. S. (2018). Socioeconomic Status and Cardiovascular Outcomes. Circulation, 137(20), 2166–2178. https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.117.029652
For ED patients being admitted, will the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality TeamSTEPPS Handoff, versus current practice, improve throughput in 12 weeks?
Patient overcrowding in emergency departments (ED) negatively impacts the quality of patient care, patient safety, and caregiver engagement. Solutions to reduce overcrowding should be centered around developing a process that promotes efficiency, quality, and empowers the caregiver to provide an excellent patient experience. The purpose of this project is to implement a nursing-driven throughput process. Areas of focus include a rapid triage model that focuses on patient intake and a team-based care model focused on efficient disposition. These processes were designed to reduce overall length patient length of stay in the ED. The benefits of this project are centered around improving patient outcomes in the ED that are associated with reduced length of stay. Other benefits include increased communication and collaboration with the nursing staff to improve caregiver engagement. As the landscape of healthcare evolves, strategies to reduce ED overcrowding must also evolve to reflect how the community uses the ED. Overcrowding directly affects patient care quality, decreases caregiver satisfaction, and places the ED at risk for more significant systemic problems. By implementing a nurse-driven triage model and team-based care approach, caregivers are empowered to impact ED wait times, patient throughput, and reduce the overall length of stay. The PIT model and team-based care approach allow caregivers to collaborate to improve communication and workplace efficiency. As a result, they can improve team morale, increase communication efficiency, and create an environment that focuses on delivering the best patient care experience.
Ahsan et al. (2019), explains that Adequate health care is a basic need for every citizen of a country, and emergency department is a critical part of the hospitals. Therefore, a separate ED is usually designed in most of the hospitals to provide the necessary emergency care to the patients in need. As the population increases, the demand of emergency care also increases in almost every country of the world. Sometimes, many non-emergency patients turn up into the EDs mainly due to the lack of primary healthcare services and lack of proper awareness of the purpose of emergency services. As a result, the EDs are getting busier day by day. On the other hand, these EDs are on constant pressure due to the budget constraints and additional regulations from governments. Healthcare sector in every country is very sensitive, and it plays an important role in national politics. So, any deviation from the desired healthcare service may create additional pressure on the healthcare professionals.
Ahsan, K.B., Alam, M.R., Morel, D.G. et al. Emergency department resource optimisation for improved performance: a review. J Ind Eng Int 15 (Suppl 1), 253–266 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40092-019-00335-x
Austin, E.E., Blakely, B., Tufanaru, C. et al. Strategies to measure and improve emergency department performance: a scoping review. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med 28, 55 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-020-0074
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