Tag: emergency-department-flow

Have You Observed Your Clinical Decision Unit Lately?

August 17th, 2017
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Better collaboration between the ED and hospitalists. A more satisfying patient experience. The majority of admissions discharged home. Shorter lengths of stay. These are the results being achieved at hospitals nationwide thanks to the advantages provided by our Clinical Decision Unit (CDU). A well-run CDU speeds patient turnaround and improves throughput. Patients move out of the […]

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Posted in General, Life in the ER, Patient Satisfaction

Strategies to Address ED Boarding Must Include Strong Partnership Between Hospital and EM Group

October 5th, 2012
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Two recent articles on ED boarding and patient flow highlight growing awareness of the importance of this issue and its impact on what emergency physicians do every day. But while both articles suggest some ways of dealing with ED boarding, neither addresses directly the key ingredient to ensuring those strategies succeed: correct framing enabled by […]

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Posted in Quality Efficiency Utilization

How to Communicate with Patients in the ER: First Seek to Understand

September 25th, 2012
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A new patient is placed in room 18. I read the chief complaint as I sign up to see the patient: 32-year-old male seeking detox from narcotics. Let’s be honest: most of us in emergency medicine are not thrilled to see this patient. First of all, in most cases, there is not much that we […]

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Posted in Leadership, Life in the ER

The Best Way To Handle Growth Is to Get More Efficient

May 28th, 2010
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During my career as an emergency physician, I have worked in several different emergency departments. Going back to residency, I had shifts in numerous ER’s in Chicago, from inner city locales and large teaching hospitals to smaller community based hospitals in the surrounding suburbs. There are many differences in facilities and processes even within the […]

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Posted in Quality Efficiency Utilization

What Will the Coming Decade In Healthcare Look Like?

January 10th, 2010
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As we welcome a new decade, I’ve been thinking a lot about perspective. This past decade has been marked by terrorism at home and abroad, economic recession, home foreclosures, H1N1, regime changes, and more. Not a very upbeat decade, as decades go. Ronald Reagan spoke of that bright shining city on a hill and challenged […]

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Posted in Future of Healthcare, Life in the ER