Hospital topics
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St. Joseph Hospital of Orange implemented a new emergency department (ED) program, the Rapid Assessment and Discharge in Triage (RADIT) program, designed to reduce patient waiting time and improve overall patient satisfaction. ED visitors presenting nonurgent problems were served by a roving RADIT team. ⋯ After 6 months, results indicated that RADIT patients were discharged on average in 97 min; however, there was a slight increase in average time in ED. A patient satisfaction survey indicated that about 96% of RADIT patients rated the quality of service received as either good or excellent. The authors provide the background and context that resulted in the decision to implement RADIT.
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Medical errors and patient safety are urgent healthcare management challenges. To date, not enough has occurred to provide a systematic organizational design framework for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety. The authors offer such a framework by integrating multiple organizational factors and using well-accepted organization theory, citing relevant empirical research studies of medical errors and patient safety to support specific organizational factors. They discuss organizational design implications and recommendations for healthcare executives.