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In This Issue
  • Mission Critical: Moving Outside the Walls of the Emergency Department
  • Best Practices: Emergency Department Follow-Up Office
  • Innovations: Using Telemedicine to Link Nursing Homes to the Emergency Department
  • Perspectives: Triaging the Emergency Care System
  • Focus on Learning Network II: Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center

Mission Critical Moving Outside the Walls of the Emergency Department

Health care in the United States is delivered through a fragmented and complex system than can be difficult to navigate in the best of times.  While the purpose of the emergency department (ED) is treat and stabilize in instances of acute episodic care, in reality the ED does a lot more than treat and release patients.  The Follow-Up Office at Stony Brook Medical Center is an example of how one ED is collaborating with the local community to improve the health of its citizens.       
 
A decrease in the number of health care facilities combined with an increase in the number of Americans without health insurance and an aging population have contributed to a significant increase in the number of people receiving health care through the emergency department (ED).  The Medical College of Georgia is using telemedicine to keep nursing homes residents from visiting the ED unnecessarily. 
 
In recent years, there has been a major push to better integrate the efforts of the wide variety of federal agencies that do similar work, the Emergency Care Coordination Center was established to examine and explore ways to regionalize the delivery of emergency care. 
Best Practices 
Emergency Department Follow-Up Office
 
The emergency department (ED) is most commonly associated with acute illness and traumatic injury — heart attacks, car accidents, gunshot wounds, even anaphylactic shock — but the reality is that many visits to the ED are triggered by symptoms that stem from grave but undetected conditions. That, and the transient nature of ED patients, creates special challenges for health care. Read More >>
Innovations 
Using Telemedicine to Link Nursing Homes to the Emergency Department
 
The nation’s health care system could greatly alleviate burdens on emergency departments by abandoning the old school of thought that it’s necessary to touch someone to make a medical decision. According to emergency medicine expert Bruce Janiak, “most of the information comes from the medical history, and a little from symptoms and tests.” Read More >>
Perspectives
Triaging the Emergency Care System
 
In recent years, there has been a major push to better integrate the efforts of the wide variety of federal agencies that do similar work, bringing together the many different offices and organizations that have been created to coordinate national defense, intelligence, financial oversight and yes, even emergency care. Read More >>

Focus on Urgent Matters Learning Network II
Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center
 
Good Samaritan Hospital is a high volume, level two trauma center, with both an adult and pediatric emergency department (ED).  Patient flow has always been a concern for this busy community hospital that seen only growth in volume in recent years. Read More >>