ED management : the monthly update on emergency department management
-
Establishing alarm management as a new National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG), The Joint Commission (TJC) is calling on hospitals to make the issue a safety priority, and to begin establishing policies and procedures designed to minimize alarm fatigue among clinical staff. Beginning on January 1,2014, hospitals need to begin identifying the most important alarm signals to manage based on input from staff as well as factors such as patient risk, and the potential for harm as demonstrated by the device's history. By January 1,2016, hospitals need to have policies and procedures in place for managing alarms identified in the first phase of the NPSG's requirements. Also, staff and independent licensed practitioners need to be educated about the purpose and proper operation of alarm systems that they are responsible for.
-
In a pilot study, researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found that when a peer referral program is combined with an ED-based HIV screening program, more cases of undiagnosed HIV can be detected, providing a preventive health benefit to the community. However, more studies are needed to determine how to best capitalize on the yield of ED-based screening programs, and to get better estimates on the potential benefits of combining social networking programs with screening programs. Dedicated testers and a streamlined process for enabling patients to be signed in as outpatients rather than ED patients were key aspects of the program. ⋯ In particular, program staff targeted any companions or partners of patients who were in the ED with them when they came in for testing. Between May and September of 2011, 466 patients were tested, with four patients testing positive for HIV. Among participants in the testing/peer-referral program, 34% had no prior visit to the ED, and 69% had never been tested by the ED-based HIV testing program.