In late 2020 and early 2021, several hospitals implemented “virtual ED” programs as COVID-19 cases increasingly strained and threatened to overwhelm the healthcare system. You may be wondering what virtual care really is, and why it is becoming so prevalent in Canada. You may also wonder if this is a program that can be of benefit in your practice. In this month’s HiQuiPs post, we will introduce virtual care, its perceived need, and …
Expert’s Corner – Dr. Eddy Lang on Quality Improvement and Healthcare
Welcome to another HiQuiPs Expert Corner. In this edition, we asked Dr. Eddy Lang three questions about Quality Improvement (QI) given his impressive track record of system improvements. Dr. Eddy Lang is the current Department Head of Emergency Medicine and a Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. In addition, he serves as the Clinical Department Head for Emergency Medicine and a senior researcher at Alberta Health Services, Calgary zone. …
HiQuiPs: Navigating Ethics in Quality Improvement
You have decided to start a quality improvement (QI) project on improving access to fascia iliaca nerve blocks for hip fractures in your emergency department (ED). You have also gathered an interdisciplinary team of experts within your ED to help you identify structure, process, outcome and balance measures to use in your QI project. But how can you ensure you collect your data ethically when executing this project? Welcome back to another HiQuiPs …
HiQuiPs: Sim to Win
It’s a night shift, quieter than usual, though you wouldn’t say so out loud. As if the thought is enough to tempt fate, EMS rolls by. You got no patch, no heads up. “Car accident, just outside the hospital,” a paramedic calls as the patient is transferred onto the trauma stretcher. All you hear are unintelligible moans. All you see is blood streaming from a severely injured face. But the team’s already working, …
Root Cause Analysis in the Time of COVID-19:
You are midway through a busy rapid response shift where you have noticed an increased response time of the hospital’s intubating teams to decompensating patients. Over the last few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted restructuring of the use of many spaces to accommodate the influx of patients. You understand that the system is overwhelmed but you are optimistic that you can optimize the interprofessional team’s response times. This sets off a new …
Hosting More Effective Morbidity & Mortality Rounds
LeBron was in the last few months of his emergency medicine (EM) residency and was tasked with presenting morbidity and mortality (M&M) rounds during an EM rotation. Between clinical shifts and incessant studying for his exam, he carved out time to prepare the rounds. Although he had been a participant in many M&M rounds, he realized that he had never presented at one. He didn’t have a good case to present and wondered …