To continue our FLOW Hacks series, Dr. Joanna Bostwick writes about her team’s innovation aimed at improving physician initial assessment time in the ED. Setting This intervention was carried out at Hôpital Montfort, Ottawa, Ontario, an academic francophone community hospital with 56, 000 ED visits per year. Description of the innovation Our ED has applied an adapted version of Physician in Triage (PIT) termed “Doc in the Box” with the goal of decreasing physician …
HiQuiPs: Preparation Part 2 – Stakeholder Engagement and Behavior Change
You have recently finished a review of incidents that have been flagged in your ED. You have chosen a pertinent issue to tackle, formed a core group to work on the project, and formulated a SMART aim statement after reading our last HiQuiPs post. The median time for obtaining 12-lead ECGs is 13 minutes, while guidelines recommend less than 10 minutes.1 Your aim is to decrease the initial 12-lead ECG acquisition time by …
CAEP FEI | Human Trafficking Awareness: A Learning Module
Jeremy is a second year resident who is about to see a 25 year old female presenting with abdominal pain. During the history he notices the patient is remarkably quiet and that the patient’s male friend is answering all the questions for her. When Jeremy asks the male friend to leave the room for a moment, both the patient and the friend object. Jeremy starts wondering if this patient might be a victim …
FLOW Hacks 6 – Improving Usage of Probenecid for Skin and Soft Tissue Infections
To continue our FLOW Hacks series, Dr. Shawn Dowling writes about his team’s innovation aimed at reducing the number of Emergency Department (ED) revisits for repeated IV antibiotic administration. Setting This intervention was carried out in all of the EDs in Calgary, Alberta. Across all four sites, there is an average of 320, 000 patient visits annually. Description of the innovation In order to reduce the number of revisits to the ED for …
HiQuiPs: Preparation Part 1 – General Considerations for ED Quality Improvement Projects
You are in the middle of a busy night shift and you see a 73-year-old female with diffuse abdominal pain who is hemodynamically stable. You have a wide differential and order a CT scan to aid in the diagnosis as you begin empiric management. Three hours pass by and the CT has not been performed. This is the third time this week that this has happened. In light of this, you feel strongly …
HiQuiPs: Quality of Care and the ED
You have just finished a busy ED shift on a warm summer evening and feel that you have been able to help a lot of people today. You plan to visit a patio and relax as you have earned it! On your way out you overhear a patient and their family members saying that they came to this ED because they heard it was “the best”, and they would never go back to …