In this Issue:

• Best Practices: Engaging Staff to Reduce ED Wait Times to 30 Minutes: Recognition, Rewards and Review of Data Energizes Chicagos Mount Sinai
• Innovations: Going Electronic in the ED: Why Every ED Physician at Parkview Medical Center Now Has a PAL
• Perspectives: Comparing Apples and Oranges in the ED: The Need for National Standards
• Webinar Resources: Strategies to Improve Patient Flow and Reduce ED Crowding

Best Practices
Engaging Staff to Reduce ED Wait Times to 30 Minutes: Recognition, Rewards and Review of Data Energizes Chicago's Mount Sinai

The financial implications of patients who leave the emergency department (ED) without being seen are serious for any hospital. At Chicago’s Mount Sinai Hospital, where 75 percent of inpatient admissions come through the ED, the implications can mean the hospital’s success or failure. The pressure increased when a nearby hospital announced plans to close its ED. That’s when Mount Sinai leaders engaged the entire hospital in an effort to improve throughput and alleviate ED wait times.

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Innovations
Going Electronic in the Emergency Department: Why Every ED Physician at Parkview Medical Center Now Has a PAL

Electronic medical records have the potential to increase patient safety, simplify a hospital's coding and billing processes, hasten the turn-around time for patient records by eliminating dictation and more. Administrators and staff at Parkview Medical Center, however, found that going high-tech could also lead to less provider-to-patient interaction and decreased patient satisfaction. That's when they developed the Physician Assistant Liaison or PAL program.

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Perspectives
Comparing Apples and Oranges in the ED: The Need for National Standards

Increasingly, hospital leaders are looking to emergency department (ED) managers to ensure that timely, efficient, cost-effective and high-quality care is provided, and that patients are satisfied. Consequently, performance measures have become commonplace. Christiana Care Health System's Dr. Charles Reese explains why the Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance developed standard performance measures and a cohort scheme that should be adopted nationwide.

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Webinar Resources
Strategies to Improve Patient Flow and Reduce ED Crowding

All materials from the October 4, 2006 and November 2, 2006 Webinars are now archived and available to download for free. Materials include audio recordings, presentation slides, and several associated documents.

The Webinar presentations include:

October 4, 2006

1. Creating and Using Process Improvement Teams to Reduce ED Crowding
   - Debra Foshee, RN, Vice President, Quality and Medical Staff Services, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Rockville, MD
   
2. The 24-Hour ED Cycle
   - Shari Welch, MD, FACEP, QI Director, Emergency Department, LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, UT

November 2, 2006

1. Strategies for Improving Patient Flow Within Your Organization
   - Cindy McGlone, Vice President, Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, Philadelphia, PA
   
2. ED Nurse Recruitment and Retention Strategies
   - Melinda Stibal, RN, BS, CEN, Administrative Director, ED & Trauma Services, Memorial Healthcare System, Hollywood, FL

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