Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety / Joint Commission Resources
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This tool, which takes one or two minutes to use, provides a structured approach to promote effective interdisciplinary communication and teamwork in the operating room--or any other area, such as an intensive care unit, inpatient unit, or outpatient clinic.
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · May 2006
Managing capacity to reduce emergency department overcrowding and ambulance diversions.
Shady Grove Adventist Hospital implemented a series of housewide initiatives to decrease ambulance diversions, decrease wait times in the emergency department (ED), improve poor patient satisfaction, and decrease risks to patient safety. ⋯ The initiatives helped improve access to care for the rapidly growing community. Reductions in ambulance diversions and ED overcrowding reflected a team effort, which included the executive team as well as clinical and nonclinical staff, and a holistic approach to identifying and removing throughput barriers.
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Apr 2006
Using telemedicine to facilitate thrombolytic therapy for patients with acute stroke.
Recent stroke-care requirements state that all stroke patients should be screened for intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) and treated, if the appropriate inclusion and exclusion criteria are met. Two community hospitals 90-130 miles east of Houston deployed telemedicine (videoteleconferencing) to provide acute stroke consultative services. DEVELOPING A TELEMEDICINE CAPACITY: According to the Brain Attack Coalition's recommendations, neurosurgical services need to be accessible within two hours. Given their incomplete neurology coverage, the remote-site hospitals identified telemedicine as the best option, with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston stroke team as the provider of expertise. ⋯ Telemedicine facilitated thrombolytic therapy for acute stroke patients and is intended not to replace care provided by remote-site providers but rather to address a time- and spatially related emergency need.
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Poor communication of medical information at transition points of care--at admission, transfer, and discharge--often results in medication errors, but various strategies can reduce the likelihood of error.