Case: Boarding Psychiatric Patients in the ED
June 15, 2018
Recent studies demonstrate that about 10% of all emergency department patients present with psychiatric illness. Because of the unique risks associated with psychiatric patients, coordinating their care and admission has proven to be a challenge for emergency physicians. Here we present a case that highlights the risks of boarding patients in the emergency department. Source:…Read More
Triage Goals: Rapidly Identifying & Sorting Patients
June 5, 2018
A 25-year-old male presents to an emergency department at his local community hospital with abdominal pain. The department is at its peak time of patient flow, and every bed is filled. The patient is called to the triage area; the nurse assesses him and assigns a triage level decision to his chart. His triage nurse must consider…Read More
Cognitive Errors in the Failure to Diagnose: Anchoring
May 24, 2018
Why was the diagnosis really missed? In my previous position as Manager of Risk, Claims & Insurance for our physician group, the available methods of error analysis never satisfied my quest for the ultimate answer to this recurrent question in any given case. The majority of our group practice was emergency medicine; our claims data…Read More
How to Obtain Clinician Support
May 17, 2018
Once you have allocated resources toward your performance improvement initiative, the next best practice in initiative implementation involves getting your clinicians to support it. Engaging clinicians early in any initiative is crucial to success. If they decide against participating in the program, morale can suffer. Conversely, clinicians who embrace the program have testified to its…Read More
Measuring Clinical Performance Improvement in Emergency Medicine
May 8, 2018
The RSQ® Solutions – Emergency Medicine Assessment is a retrospective chart review tool providing a granular analysis on physician practice patterns. The online tool focuses on the 10 highest risk chief complaints in emergency medicine and measures clinical alignment around best practice and documentation compliance with these high-risk patients. Source: Hubspot
Preventing Medical Errors: 7 Things Every Provider Needs to Know
May 4, 2018
Despite the wake-up call given 18 years ago by the Institute of Medicine’s report “To Err is Human,” medical errors still occur at alarming rates. The landmark publication estimated that up to 98,000 Americans die each year from medical errors, and one out of every twenty-five hospitalized patients is harmed by a medical mistake. There…Read More
Identifying Resources & Personnel for Initiative Implementation
April 25, 2018
On the journey to improve the quality of patient care, initiatives to enhance clinical performance are necessary. Nevertheless, they can seem to be a daunting task; in fact, these initiatives require several well-orchestrated steps to ensure the program reaches its full impact potential. Over the past decade, The Sullivan Group has partnered with some of…Read More
Physician Burnout: An Emotionally Malignant Disease
April 16, 2018
Physician burnout is as epidemic as the plague once was, as malignant as the most devastating cancer, and as silent an assassin as hypertension. The topic has garnered much attention not only because of its impact on the healthcare practitioner, but also due to its detriment to the patient. While a search for the term…Read More
What is the Triage Competency Assessment Tool?
April 9, 2018
According to ENA, retrospective chart review is a critical element of ongoing triage competency validation. The RSQ® Solutions – Triage Assessment tool is built upon triage best practices and provides a mechanism through which your organization can implement and execute a scalable and sustainable chart review process. Source: Hubspot
EMTALA and Psychiatric Hospitals
March 26, 2018
There seems to be a widespread misperception among freestanding psychiatric facilities that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd (EMTALA), does not apply to them. This may or may not be true depending upon the licensure and the configuration of the facility. It is not as simple as a yes/no calculation….Read More
