Emergency Medicine Team of the Year
BMJ 2014; 348 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g2861 (Published 23 April 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;348:g2861
- Vanessa Sibbald, digital content editor
- 1Evidence Centre, BMJ, London WC1H 9JR, UK
- Correspondence to: vsibbald{at}bmj.com
Emergency Care Pathway—Occupancy Project; Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London
Reducing waiting times, monitoring occupancy
True to its name, the Occupancy Project found a way to improve performance against the four hour access target in the emergency department by carefully looking at occupancy—the total number of patients in the department at any one time. The team had identified patient crowding in the emergency room and realised that reviewing occupancy allowed the department to better understand why the department became crowded at particular times. Using real time occupancy data, they identified where the bottlenecks occurred and responded by, for example, moving resources around. Katherine Henderson, team leader, says, “Our use of occupancy allows us to solve the problem before it develops.” The changes helped the trust move from 110th to 50th in the country for emergency department performance, and it was listed as one of the top five in London.
Emergency Department; Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
Using propofol to improve care
Although joint relocations, fracture manipulations, and direct current cardioversion are relatively common in emergency departments, the traditional methods used to relieve patients’ pain have limitations. In …
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