An 85-year-old woman who lives independently at home was hospitalized three days ago for pneumonia. She has multiple comorbidities, including dementia, hypertension and diabetic neuropathy. While in hospital, the patient’s care team noticed her losing balance, and it was determined that the patient was at high risk of falling. One evening, the patient attempted to go to the bathroom independently. She put on her glasses and took the cane provided to her, as …
Reporting Patient Safety Events in the Emergency Department
You are a physician caring for a 4-year-old patient in the Emergency Department (ED) presenting with a fever. Before ordering Acetaminophen for the patient, you check the patient’s weight on the emergency record, which you read as 17kg. You then write an order based on this weight. The ED nurse checks the order to see if the medication dose is safe using the hospital medication formulary. After that, the nurse approaches you and …
Human-Centered Design in Healthcare
You are working a busy shift in the emergency department and are trying to quickly disposition patients. As the shift progresses and your feet hurt, you wonder why your work space is far removed from the patient care area, and different walls have bins that contain order sets, handover notes, and referral forms. Moreover, the route to sending the tube to the lab crosses too close to the dirty utility room. You think …