Journal of emergency nursing : JEN : official publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association
-
"Time out for patient safety" is a simple and effective tool to improve communication among caregivers based on the use of critical language that has been effective in the perioperative setting, airline industry, and military. In the emergency department it is non threatening and focuses attention on safe patient care. "Time out for patient safety" complements the use of other standardized communication techniques such as SBAR in clinical situations in which immediate intervention is mandatory for patient safety. ⋯ The concept was well received by the group. Future research is needed to address outcomes for effectiveness.
-
According to Drs Thom Mayer and Kirk Jensen, widely recognized experts in leadership, management, and customer service, "Improving patient flow essentially means patients spend exactly the right amount of time at every juncture in their journey through an organization, when you improve flow, you can serve more patients, with less effort and you can serve them better." 2 Recognizing that backups in the emergency department are a result of broken processes throughout the hospital is the first step in solving these problems. The most significant challenges are the prevailing attitudes that team triage and immediate bedding could not be done. Another challenge is the broad reaching nature of the issue. ⋯ As ED crowding worsens, it is important for departments to improve operations to promote patient throughput. No doubt, operational bottlenecks at the back end of the emergency department will ultimately lead to front-end delays. However, proficient patient processing at the ED front end can minimize the time to physician evaluation, increase patient satisfaction, and decrease totalED length of stay.