Does a Provider in Triage and Rapid Medical Evaluation Help With Left Without Being Seen Rates and ED Crowding?

Introduction

Attempting to reduce ED crowding, the ED team at a rural academic medical center and specialty hospital implemented rapid medical evaluation (RME) with and without a provider in triage (PIT). The purpose of this performance improvement project was to explore how these interventions affected crowding metrics of door-to-disposition time, ED length of stay (LOS), and left without being seen (LWBS) rates for all patients.

Improving 3-Hour Sepsis Bundled Care Outcomes: Implementation of a Nurse-Driven Sepsis Protocol in the Emergency Department

ProblemSepsis, a life-threatening condition, can rapidly progress to death. The Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program has implemented bundled care metrics for sepsis care, but timely completion of these interventions is challenging. Best-practice interventions could improve patient outcomes and reimbursement. The purpose of this project was to improve the timeliness of sepsis recognition and implementation of bundled care interventions in the emergency department.MethodsThis evidence-based practice improvement project implemented a Detect, Act, Reassess, Titrate (DART)-based nursing protocol embedded within a checklist communication tool in the emergency department of a tertiary level-2 trauma center. Data comparisons between preintervention and post-DART protocol/checklist implementation included compliance with the individual Inpatient Quality Reporting 3-hour bundled elements, number of hospital days, and time to screen. Staff also completed a survey designed to assess their satisfaction with the DART algorithm/checklist. The Pearson χ² test was used to assess bundled-care intervention variables. Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to explore hospitalization outcomes. Staff satisfaction survey results were summarized.ResultsImprovement was statistically significant for lactate levels, blood cultures, and early antibiotic administration in the intervention period compared with baseline. Time to screen, ED length of stay, and number of hospital days improved between baseline and the intervention period, with an average number of hospital days decreasing by 2.5 days. Compliance with all Inpatient Quality Reporting metrics increased from 30% to 80%.DiscussionWhen the nurse-driven protocol and communication tool were implemented, compliance with time-sensitive sepsis bundled interventions improved significantly. The outcomes suggest nurse-driven protocols can improve sepsis outcomes.     

Novel Use of a Nurse-Led Telemedicine Team in Acute Stroke: A Retrospective Review of the Impact on a Regional Health Care System

IntroductionDespite the increasing incidence of acute ischemic stroke in the United States, many health care facilities remain unprepared to manage patients with acute stroke, including the administration of intravenous alteplase (recombinant tissue plasminogen activator [rTPA]). This has led to an opportunity for telemedicine systems to facilitate these evaluations and acute medical stroke treatment decisions. However, even telemedicine systems can fail to provide timely evaluation and management of the patient with acute stroke. The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare stroke outcome metrics pre- and postimplementation of a hybrid, local nurse-led “stroke-responder” telemedicine system.MethodsA retrospective chart review was performed on 21 patients at a regional community hospital between the years of 2014 and 2016. Data were collected pre- and postimplementation of a local stroke-responder system. Outcomes obtained included door-to-alert time, door-to-computerized tomography (CT) time, door-to-rtPA order time, and door-to-rtPA bolus dose administration time. Outcomes were compared among years.ResultsBetween 2014 and 2016, 21 charts were reviewed. Decreased mean times were observed for all metrics. The mean time for door-to-alert decreased from 21.19 to 5.84 minutes (P = 0.021), door-to-CT from 29.9 to 12.2 minutes (P = 0.022), door-to-rtPA order 88.4 to 53 minutes (P = 0.021), and door-to-rtPA administration from 106.94 to 64.65 minutes (P = 0.001).ConclusionIn an acute stroke telemedicine system, implementation of a local nurse-led “stroke responder” system resulted in significantly decreased acute stroke metrics for a community hospital within a regional hospital system.