A new marketing tool has made its debut in many local Emergency Rooms. Most notably, at Dignity Health. The Human Kindness folks. Its called InQuickER. Its a web based tool to allow one to make appointments in their participating Emergency Department from the comfort of their own home via their Smart Phone.
The theory goes like this. You have an urgent issue, but not something life threatening, and you do not want to wait in a crowded Emergency Room full of coughing Ebola patients. You pull out your Smart Phone and make an appointment in your local ED and are assigned an appointment time. You wait in the comfort of you own home and when you arrive you get right in, supposedly. The program will kick you out if you put in key words such as "Chest Pain" or "Stroke". and will advise you to call 911. It contains disclaimers that your appointment time is not guaranteed if there are real emergencies to deal with. The ED will receive a fax that your on the way and the staff is instructed to accommodate your arrival. If your time cannot be accommodated due to department acuity or volume the ED can push your appointment back in 30 min increments. You will get a message if your appointment time is altered.
Just a few problems other than the obvious question of Appointments in the ED, Really! The keyword recognition is really not that smart. There was a sentinel event at one Human Kindness facility that involved a pediatric death shortly after going live with this program. A mother had a sick child, made her online appointment and waited at home with her child. Her complaint description did not trigger the key word trigger and the fax to the ED did not set off any alarm bells. When the patient was brought in at the appointment time he was in severe shock and expired after resuscitation. Would the outcome have been different if she just brought the child in without waiting at home. Who knows. No problem. The RCA determined that a few tweaks of the Key Word sensitivity would prevent a further occurrence. I'm not so sure.
Thoughts, comments on your experiences with InQuickER or like programs. Is this program helpful or just a cheesy attempt to market Emergency Department services?
Showing posts with label Emergency Department. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emergency Department. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
How to tell if you have been Studerized - or something that sounds similar
You’re a seasoned ED Nurse. You are respected by your peers. You are up to date with the latest medical advances, you treat your patients well, you’re a strong patient advocate and actively advocate for patient safety and the nursing profession even if it conflicts with some of your organizations priorities. You probably feel your operating at or near the expert level and have been evaluated that way for a number of years but I have news for you. Nurses are no longer graded on the Novice to Expert scale. They are now being categorized as Low, Medium, and High performers. So how do you know where you fit in and what’s behind this new evaluation system? Hold on, if you haven’t already you’re about to be Studerized or something that sounds similar but is much more painful, at least from what I’ve been told.
How can you tell if you’re on the road to Studerization. It starts out when your managers, CNE, CEO, ED MD Director, among others leave for a few days to a conference or management retreat. The retreats are usually held in resort places like Las Vegas, Phoenix, or Florida but have been branching out to other cities and even webinars. You are not told what it’s all about and you don’t care, you’re just happy to see them gone for a few days. When they return you notice an immediate change. They are using new lingo and talk like they have been indoctrinated into some sort of cu
lt. They are very scripted. They use terms like “Hardwired”, “Fire Starter” “Best Practice” “Taking the organization to the next level” “Low Performers” and “Rounding.” Some of these I wrote about in a previous post titled annoying consultant speak They also talk about some charismatic character named Quint Studer. From conversations with a number of people who’ve attended the programs they sound like a combination of a Amway multilevel marketing seminar, manager training seminar, and Kool-Aid drinking cult gathering. There usually is an inspirational speaker to pump up the crowd. There are various levels and once students are immersed in the philosophy they are considered “Studerized”. A more advanced level is the “Fire Starter” which has a 15 point litmus test called “15 Sparks”. Hospitals can even win the prestigious Fire Starter Award after a visit from one of the Studer troopers.
Hospitals thought-out the nation are trying to improve their patient satisfaction scores and marketing share. I have written about that in a post on patient satisfaction scores out of balance and How has the patient satisfaction push effected your practice. They have turned to groups like Studer who give them the nuts and bolts of turning patients into customers and strategies to bump their satisfaction scores. I have listed my own strategies here.
Not long after the retreat new concepts start appearing into the work area. Some are founded in good ideas but are being done for marketing reasons and means to boost patient satisfaction scores rather than any interest in patient care. Some measures include.
Scripting: Nurses are no longer free to communicate the way that feels natural or based on the situation at hand but are given scripts to communicate with their patients. Coincidentally, or not, the scripts prompt the patient to answer their discharge surveys by injecting key phrases into the scripts that correspond with the questions on the survey. Would you like Fries with that?
Managing up: Encouraging staff to positively portray services and co-workers, doctors, ect during conversations and hand offs regardless if it is true or not. Hi, this is your Doctor, He is one of our best physicians, The patients really love him. Wink Wink
Hourly rounding: Rounding every hour and every half our for ER utilizing your best scripting language. Staff are required to fill out rounding documents and some facilities play the beach boys music “I get Around” every hour on the hour to remind staff. Even the Manager, CNE, and CEO round once a day and ask patients directly if your Nurse has been doing their rounding. I hope my patients are not sleeping when I round, I might get a write up for not performing my hourly’s.
Discharge Phone calls: Generally a good concept if done to check on patients but these calls are timed and scripted to plant answers to survey questions with the specific purpose of boosting patient satisfaction scores. Expect a call the day before your survey arrives provided you were not admitted, transferred, mental health, or someone who really needed to be in the ER.
Peer review: Having staff fill out 1 to 5 rating scales on each other in 5 different categories. Used to help classify people as low, medium, or high performers. If you dont participate your immediatly classified a low performer. Nice way of turning the staff against each other.
RME: Marketing measures disguised as ED through put measures that focus on turnover and catering to low acuity patients, oops, I mean customers. I have written on RME and similar programs here and here. The common thread it that they de-emphasize Triage and limit the practice of Nursing.
So where do you fall, Here are some characteristics of low, medium, and high performers from the Studer site. Funny thing, you could be a effective employee and Studer still recommends you be fired
“..In fact, I would even suggest that you terminate employees who get results but do not role model your organization’s standards of behavior, because they are so damaging to overall employee morale”.
One Chief Nursing officer at a Sutter Health Facility learned the hard way about the dangers of email. It exposed how managers are using groups like Studer target their staff following a quota system. She instructs each department manager to identify 3 low performers per unit “You know who they are” for moving up or out to improve Press Ganey scores. Read her leaked memo here. CNA gave a great response on the same memo.
So are you ready to be Studerized. Bend over.
How can you tell if you’re on the road to Studerization. It starts out when your managers, CNE, CEO, ED MD Director, among others leave for a few days to a conference or management retreat. The retreats are usually held in resort places like Las Vegas, Phoenix, or Florida but have been branching out to other cities and even webinars. You are not told what it’s all about and you don’t care, you’re just happy to see them gone for a few days. When they return you notice an immediate change. They are using new lingo and talk like they have been indoctrinated into some sort of cu
lt. They are very scripted. They use terms like “Hardwired”, “Fire Starter” “Best Practice” “Taking the organization to the next level” “Low Performers” and “Rounding.” Some of these I wrote about in a previous post titled annoying consultant speak They also talk about some charismatic character named Quint Studer. From conversations with a number of people who’ve attended the programs they sound like a combination of a Amway multilevel marketing seminar, manager training seminar, and Kool-Aid drinking cult gathering. There usually is an inspirational speaker to pump up the crowd. There are various levels and once students are immersed in the philosophy they are considered “Studerized”. A more advanced level is the “Fire Starter” which has a 15 point litmus test called “15 Sparks”. Hospitals can even win the prestigious Fire Starter Award after a visit from one of the Studer troopers.Hospitals thought-out the nation are trying to improve their patient satisfaction scores and marketing share. I have written about that in a post on patient satisfaction scores out of balance and How has the patient satisfaction push effected your practice. They have turned to groups like Studer who give them the nuts and bolts of turning patients into customers and strategies to bump their satisfaction scores. I have listed my own strategies here.
Not long after the retreat new concepts start appearing into the work area. Some are founded in good ideas but are being done for marketing reasons and means to boost patient satisfaction scores rather than any interest in patient care. Some measures include.
Scripting: Nurses are no longer free to communicate the way that feels natural or based on the situation at hand but are given scripts to communicate with their patients. Coincidentally, or not, the scripts prompt the patient to answer their discharge surveys by injecting key phrases into the scripts that correspond with the questions on the survey. Would you like Fries with that?
Managing up: Encouraging staff to positively portray services and co-workers, doctors, ect during conversations and hand offs regardless if it is true or not. Hi, this is your Doctor, He is one of our best physicians, The patients really love him. Wink Wink
Hourly rounding: Rounding every hour and every half our for ER utilizing your best scripting language. Staff are required to fill out rounding documents and some facilities play the beach boys music “I get Around” every hour on the hour to remind staff. Even the Manager, CNE, and CEO round once a day and ask patients directly if your Nurse has been doing their rounding. I hope my patients are not sleeping when I round, I might get a write up for not performing my hourly’s.
Discharge Phone calls: Generally a good concept if done to check on patients but these calls are timed and scripted to plant answers to survey questions with the specific purpose of boosting patient satisfaction scores. Expect a call the day before your survey arrives provided you were not admitted, transferred, mental health, or someone who really needed to be in the ER.
Peer review: Having staff fill out 1 to 5 rating scales on each other in 5 different categories. Used to help classify people as low, medium, or high performers. If you dont participate your immediatly classified a low performer. Nice way of turning the staff against each other.
RME: Marketing measures disguised as ED through put measures that focus on turnover and catering to low acuity patients, oops, I mean customers. I have written on RME and similar programs here and here. The common thread it that they de-emphasize Triage and limit the practice of Nursing.
So where do you fall, Here are some characteristics of low, medium, and high performers from the Studer site. Funny thing, you could be a effective employee and Studer still recommends you be fired
“..In fact, I would even suggest that you terminate employees who get results but do not role model your organization’s standards of behavior, because they are so damaging to overall employee morale”.
One Chief Nursing officer at a Sutter Health Facility learned the hard way about the dangers of email. It exposed how managers are using groups like Studer target their staff following a quota system. She instructs each department manager to identify 3 low performers per unit “You know who they are” for moving up or out to improve Press Ganey scores. Read her leaked memo here. CNA gave a great response on the same memo.
So are you ready to be Studerized. Bend over.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Templated Charting - The Slippery Slope to Fraudulant Documentation
The other day at work I was taking care of a patient that was in an MVC. She was in spinal precautions and complained of neck, and leg pain. Our ED Physician came in and did his exam from the door way holding his Tablet PC marking off items into the Electronic T-sheet while he asked a few basic questions. He was in and out in less than a minute. Out of curiosity, I reviewed his documentation and not surprisingly there was a comprehensive assessment documented. Abdominal findings, lungs sounds, heart sounds, pupils and ocular movements, neuro exam, all beautifully documented in a long paragraph and all normal. Not bad for an exam conducted from the doorway. I watched without comment throughout the day and noticed the same general exam pattern on most of his patients and the same comprehensive documentation of his exams. About one half of the Docs in this ED practice operate in a similar way although he is the worst. Others actually perform the exams they document and coincidental, have the longest door to provider times. They are being pressured to speed up their times. Exams do take time. This same Physician above is the promoter of Triage Bypass policy being promoted at the ED I work. He claims that asking patients the same questions and doing the same exam he will do (or not do) in Triage is an unnecessary delay and negatively effects patient satisfaction scores. So now when beds are open were rushing patients back with nothing more than an eyeball assessment to make them happy and get them to the Doctor who does a 1 minute exam from the doorway and fudges the chart. Guess what, our patient satisfaction numbers are way up and our length of stay is down. Administration is happy.
Fudging charting is not isolated to Physicians and Electronic Documentation. Another ED I occasionally work at I see nurses regularly check off on the paper T-Sheet items that were not done. I even see some make up phony discharge vital signs rather than take the time to do them. I recently had a discussion with my Charge Nurse who audits charts prior to the end of the shift. She was all over me because I was not checking off the boxes which said ID Band confirmed, Bed in low position, Side rails up x 2, patient gowned, blanket provided, and including discharge vitals. I told her, the patient was a Fast Track patient and discharged within minutes of arrival, I didn’t do all those things. Doesn’t matter she said, “Just check the boxes or we get dinged”. I told her to go ahead and ding me, make my day. I’d rather get dinged for not checking boxes than falsifying a chart. My stand is being viewed as I'm just being difficult.
The question that this begs is whether the problem is with the individuals or the tool. My opinion is a poorly designed tool facilitates shortcuts in certain individuals who are either lazy, dishonest, or very uninformed about what they are charting. Templated charting, either paper or electronic, can cross the line rapidly into fraudulent charting in those individuals. I don’t think they view it as fraud and are able to rationalize their actions because they feel they are only documenting to satisfy a regulatory requirement. In the case of documenting items not done to obtain a higher billing level there is no question in my mind that fraud is occurring.
A good article, here, at AIS Health.com list some of the issues with templated electronic documentation.
"Physicians love electronic medical record (EMR) templates because they make documentation faster and easier, but abuses, such as cloning and "exploding" notes, are jeopardizing reimbursement and compliance, experts say. If too much information is replicated from one EMR to the next, there is little to distinguish patient encounters, and that undermines physician attempts to establish medical necessity — the foundation of Medicare reimbursement — and perhaps implicates quality of care."
My first example I listed is an example of an exploding note. Basically, an electronic template is pulled up for a specific complaint, a few mouse clicks is all it takes to default all values to normal and a beautiful paragraph is produced based on programming code behind the scenes listing all the elements of a comprehensive normal exam. To change the defaults you need to click a few more times either selecting common abnormal values or free text the abnormal finding in. The path of least resistance is the former.
"Cloning can work for elements of the history, but cannot and should not be used for the history of present illness, the exam or the medical decision-making portion," the compliance officer says."
Cloning refers to pulling data forward from previous visits or from another persons note, usually via copy and paste, into your note and signing it as yours. Very helpful for a long history which does not change but problematic for a physical exam that you did not do. In Academic Medical Centers its common for the Student to do the exam, the Resident pulls forward the note as theirs and on rounds the Attending does the same and signs it electronically.
Templated charting both paper and electronic has caught the attention of many in the HIM community. The American Health Information Management Association has a good paper on Guidelines for EHR Documentation to prevent Fraud. The article list many types of documentation problems and recommendations and the appendix gives real case examples.
“Electronic documentation tools offer exciting new time-saving and validity checking features designed to enhance communication for all health record users. They address traditional, well-known requirements for documentation principles, while supporting expansive new HIM capabilities. However, use of these features without appropriate management and guidelines may cause invalid auto population of data fields, manufactured documentation to enhance expected reimbursement, and other undesirable outcomes”
What is the solution? It’s certainly not to stop using templated charting or electronic charting. It won’t be long before everyone is doing it. A strong set of standards for EMR design and training is essential. Charting tools that require structured data for most exam documentation would help. Rules against copying notes of others and calling them yours and the clear understanding that if you have charted something you did not do you have committed fraud. You can report fraud here. Templated charting, if used correctly, prompts the individual to perform complete exams and documentation and can enhance patient safety.
Fudging charting is not isolated to Physicians and Electronic Documentation. Another ED I occasionally work at I see nurses regularly check off on the paper T-Sheet items that were not done. I even see some make up phony discharge vital signs rather than take the time to do them. I recently had a discussion with my Charge Nurse who audits charts prior to the end of the shift. She was all over me because I was not checking off the boxes which said ID Band confirmed, Bed in low position, Side rails up x 2, patient gowned, blanket provided, and including discharge vitals. I told her, the patient was a Fast Track patient and discharged within minutes of arrival, I didn’t do all those things. Doesn’t matter she said, “Just check the boxes or we get dinged”. I told her to go ahead and ding me, make my day. I’d rather get dinged for not checking boxes than falsifying a chart. My stand is being viewed as I'm just being difficult.
The question that this begs is whether the problem is with the individuals or the tool. My opinion is a poorly designed tool facilitates shortcuts in certain individuals who are either lazy, dishonest, or very uninformed about what they are charting. Templated charting, either paper or electronic, can cross the line rapidly into fraudulent charting in those individuals. I don’t think they view it as fraud and are able to rationalize their actions because they feel they are only documenting to satisfy a regulatory requirement. In the case of documenting items not done to obtain a higher billing level there is no question in my mind that fraud is occurring.
A good article, here, at AIS Health.com list some of the issues with templated electronic documentation.
"Physicians love electronic medical record (EMR) templates because they make documentation faster and easier, but abuses, such as cloning and "exploding" notes, are jeopardizing reimbursement and compliance, experts say. If too much information is replicated from one EMR to the next, there is little to distinguish patient encounters, and that undermines physician attempts to establish medical necessity — the foundation of Medicare reimbursement — and perhaps implicates quality of care."
My first example I listed is an example of an exploding note. Basically, an electronic template is pulled up for a specific complaint, a few mouse clicks is all it takes to default all values to normal and a beautiful paragraph is produced based on programming code behind the scenes listing all the elements of a comprehensive normal exam. To change the defaults you need to click a few more times either selecting common abnormal values or free text the abnormal finding in. The path of least resistance is the former.
"Cloning can work for elements of the history, but cannot and should not be used for the history of present illness, the exam or the medical decision-making portion," the compliance officer says."
Cloning refers to pulling data forward from previous visits or from another persons note, usually via copy and paste, into your note and signing it as yours. Very helpful for a long history which does not change but problematic for a physical exam that you did not do. In Academic Medical Centers its common for the Student to do the exam, the Resident pulls forward the note as theirs and on rounds the Attending does the same and signs it electronically.
Templated charting both paper and electronic has caught the attention of many in the HIM community. The American Health Information Management Association has a good paper on Guidelines for EHR Documentation to prevent Fraud. The article list many types of documentation problems and recommendations and the appendix gives real case examples.
“Electronic documentation tools offer exciting new time-saving and validity checking features designed to enhance communication for all health record users. They address traditional, well-known requirements for documentation principles, while supporting expansive new HIM capabilities. However, use of these features without appropriate management and guidelines may cause invalid auto population of data fields, manufactured documentation to enhance expected reimbursement, and other undesirable outcomes”
What is the solution? It’s certainly not to stop using templated charting or electronic charting. It won’t be long before everyone is doing it. A strong set of standards for EMR design and training is essential. Charting tools that require structured data for most exam documentation would help. Rules against copying notes of others and calling them yours and the clear understanding that if you have charted something you did not do you have committed fraud. You can report fraud here. Templated charting, if used correctly, prompts the individual to perform complete exams and documentation and can enhance patient safety.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
A Vital Sign with concerning unintended consequences
Great post over at Aggravated Surgery Doc about the on the Downside of the 5th Vital Sign on how the PC infiltration of pain management policy caused poor patient outcomes and placed patients at higher risk. He makes valid points that political pressure has lead to more aggressive use of IV narcotic pain management instead of IM or other management thus putting patients at risk.
“In that milieu, a physician who prefers to prescribe IM narcotics can be accosted for using up valuable nursing resources, and assailed for not being sensitive enough to patients' pain. Of course, given that scenario, it was only a matter of time before some self-important regulatory agency got involved in the business of pain management”
“Fast forward a few years to 2001, when the Death Star of American Medicine decides it should be the arbiter of all things pain-related --- JCAHO published its report on Pain Management Standards. Basically, it mandated that hospitals establish policies for assessing and treating pain, particularly postoperative pain“
In my mind the crux of the issue is whether the pain scale is an accurate means of pain assessment (that’s a big NO!!!!!) and are people being harmed from more aggressive pain management (YEP!!!). A study published in the May 2007 Journal of the American College of Surgeons titled Kindness Kills: The Negative Impact of Pain as the Fifth Vital Sign documents cases of preventable death directly related to pain management in surgical patients and how they have increased in the period after JCAHO’s rules. More concern here from Anaesthesiologist.
The study and experiences above relate mostly to surgical patients. My experience has been in the ER. I have seen numerous near misses (patients needing reversal) and am aware of a few clean kills related to over aggressive pain management in a busy ED without the depth in Staffing to provide sufficient monitoring of the practice. I have seen numerous people who “Have a Ride” lie or sneak out and drive after being well medicated. I call in a report and turn in a DMV form when I see it happen. How do we measure how many people that has knocked off over the years on the roads by one of these "Customers". Wont ever be measured and the reports will be anecdotal so it will be ignored in the pain management debate.
I see this problem as getting worse and now being driven by the desire to produce high patient satisfaction scores which is reflected by improper intervention in medical decisions by non medical Hospital Administrators. Kim wrote about that recently here and couldn't’t have said it better below. When a patient does not get their fix, I mean, appropriate pain management, that being IV or IM Demoral or Dilaudid with a mixer x 2 and Rx of Vicodin #30 as well as a six pack of Vicodin to go being they came in after the Pharmacies are closed, they tend to complain.
“The patient is pissed. Excuse me, I mean the patient is experiencing anger at the unwillingness of the physician to administer what they want to be given. The patient is so angry that they take it all the way up to the head administrator of the hospital. In person.The administrator is concerned. Although the Admin is neither an RN nor MD, they do see an unhappy patient/client/health care recipient who feels they were treated inappropriately. This needs to be addressed. A meeting is called to address the patient’s issues. The bottom line: the patient gets what they want. Every time they come in, from anyone who happens to be on duty. This message is relayed back to the ER and the physician who did not treat the patient per the patient’s request is reprimanded. The patient is now given exactly what they ask for every time they come in by every doctor in the department”.
I may add that if the Nurse shows the least bit of a perceived judgmental attitude when carrying out the fix, I mean the order, they can expect a complaint and a negative evaluation, or worse from managers who are running scared over complaints. A judgmental attitude could be the Nurse inquiring about daily use of other medications, legal or illegal, that may potentate their ordered fix, I mean pain management, giving the big whopping dose of Dilaudid to slow (I put anything more than 1 mg IV on a pump over 20 min which has been called punitive), pressing the "Customer" to show they have a driver, or any type of attempted discharge education or suggestion related to their pain management practices.
If this practice has not hit your ER yet, consider yourself lucky for now.
“In that milieu, a physician who prefers to prescribe IM narcotics can be accosted for using up valuable nursing resources, and assailed for not being sensitive enough to patients' pain. Of course, given that scenario, it was only a matter of time before some self-important regulatory agency got involved in the business of pain management”
“Fast forward a few years to 2001, when the Death Star of American Medicine decides it should be the arbiter of all things pain-related --- JCAHO published its report on Pain Management Standards. Basically, it mandated that hospitals establish policies for assessing and treating pain, particularly postoperative pain“
In my mind the crux of the issue is whether the pain scale is an accurate means of pain assessment (that’s a big NO!!!!!) and are people being harmed from more aggressive pain management (YEP!!!). A study published in the May 2007 Journal of the American College of Surgeons titled Kindness Kills: The Negative Impact of Pain as the Fifth Vital Sign documents cases of preventable death directly related to pain management in surgical patients and how they have increased in the period after JCAHO’s rules. More concern here from Anaesthesiologist.
The study and experiences above relate mostly to surgical patients. My experience has been in the ER. I have seen numerous near misses (patients needing reversal) and am aware of a few clean kills related to over aggressive pain management in a busy ED without the depth in Staffing to provide sufficient monitoring of the practice. I have seen numerous people who “Have a Ride” lie or sneak out and drive after being well medicated. I call in a report and turn in a DMV form when I see it happen. How do we measure how many people that has knocked off over the years on the roads by one of these "Customers". Wont ever be measured and the reports will be anecdotal so it will be ignored in the pain management debate.
I see this problem as getting worse and now being driven by the desire to produce high patient satisfaction scores which is reflected by improper intervention in medical decisions by non medical Hospital Administrators. Kim wrote about that recently here and couldn't’t have said it better below. When a patient does not get their fix, I mean, appropriate pain management, that being IV or IM Demoral or Dilaudid with a mixer x 2 and Rx of Vicodin #30 as well as a six pack of Vicodin to go being they came in after the Pharmacies are closed, they tend to complain.
“The patient is pissed. Excuse me, I mean the patient is experiencing anger at the unwillingness of the physician to administer what they want to be given. The patient is so angry that they take it all the way up to the head administrator of the hospital. In person.The administrator is concerned. Although the Admin is neither an RN nor MD, they do see an unhappy patient/client/health care recipient who feels they were treated inappropriately. This needs to be addressed. A meeting is called to address the patient’s issues. The bottom line: the patient gets what they want. Every time they come in, from anyone who happens to be on duty. This message is relayed back to the ER and the physician who did not treat the patient per the patient’s request is reprimanded. The patient is now given exactly what they ask for every time they come in by every doctor in the department”.
I may add that if the Nurse shows the least bit of a perceived judgmental attitude when carrying out the fix, I mean the order, they can expect a complaint and a negative evaluation, or worse from managers who are running scared over complaints. A judgmental attitude could be the Nurse inquiring about daily use of other medications, legal or illegal, that may potentate their ordered fix, I mean pain management, giving the big whopping dose of Dilaudid to slow (I put anything more than 1 mg IV on a pump over 20 min which has been called punitive), pressing the "Customer" to show they have a driver, or any type of attempted discharge education or suggestion related to their pain management practices.
If this practice has not hit your ER yet, consider yourself lucky for now.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
ER Doc reacts to Nursing Ratio’s and Unionization
Posted at Backstage Pass ER Doctor blogs on the down side, as she sees it, of California’s Nursing Ratios effect on Emergency Departments and patient care. A lot of this is venting but worthy of ED Nurses review and consideration. I have seen this opinion expressed widely among my EM Physician Colleagues. Organized initiatives such as diminishing the RN’s role in Triage and other corner cutting measures are a reflection of it. So the question, Is there a backlash forming against Nursing's success in healthcare and patient advocacy and job protections? I'm feeling it!!
5.12.2007
Nursing ratios
4:1 nursing ratio...sounds like a good idea on the surface.But I tell you what - if you're in the ED waiting room, dying of a brain bleed; or if you're sitting in triage with an open fracture in excruciating pain, you'd appreciate one tenth of a nurse if it meant basic treatment......
...."Basically, nursing ratios are not good for the patients when there are already not enough nurses.......unless, of course, you're one of the first 4 to arrive".
Posted by ER doctor at 11:05 AM
I have been on both sides of this issue, formally against ratios while in ED Nursing Management, and now very much for them working at the Staff Level. I am convinced I am on the right side now, more evidence here. I made comments on ED Doctor's post regarding my support of ratios and got an interesting comment that followed. Worth a read.
ER Doctor in this post and another on Nursing Unionization express anger that Physicians and their organizations did not take an earlier stance on this issue and others and are not organized like the Nurses which advocates the balance of power to Nursing. Hey, thanks for the complement or at least acknowledgement that were kicking your butts. Were used it. We have to every day just to keep things flowing and our patients safe. Hopefully, after you vent you will realize that our advocacy is to your benefit and patients benefit. Yes, some Nurses do take advantage of the ratio's but the overall effect is good for patients. I do sense your anger and see some of your points. Others are just plain wrong like a RN can be cooked up from scratch in 2 years.
In another post ED Doctor writes
5.23.2007
Letter to my peers on unionizing
(I will kindly *not* include myself in this)Doctors are stupid, because they have allowed this to happen.Still living in an era of the rich, private practice mentality...not accepting the fact that most physicians today are employees in one way or another. And instead of turning up their noses to unionizing, perhaps they should realize that they are now more like the average worker. They've allowed the nursing union to be the be the sole legislative voice on healthcare policy, to their detriment, and to the detriment of their patients.As the nursing union shouts "patient advocacy," they are trying to implement healthcare policy that actually hurts the poorest, sickest, neediest members of our society (I'll elaborate as needed). The whole while, the AMA/CMA (made up of mostly people who are completely out of touch with young physicians) asks for money, but does nothing to help their cause. Time after time, taking "no position" on matters that make a huge difference with regard to modern physician's issues. Case in point - the Governor's proposed tax on doctors and hospitals. The doctor's are getting fucked, and there is no unified voice advocating on their behalf. Therefore, patients are getting fucked, and healthcare is a complete mess. And where are the doctors? Where is their voice. What solutions are *they* offering?Doctors need to change their thinking, hold the medical societies accountable, (or refuse to join), participate in the legislative process, and drop the arrogance against unionizing. Or we can all prepare for complete chaos as healthcare continues to fall apart, without a legitimate beacon of leadership. As the doctors bury their heads in their arrogant asses, allow everyone else to take control, and then wonder why they are (directly) paying for a shitty healthcare system, run by nurses/chiropractors/optometrists/herbalists/and the 'people at the healthfood store.'Get a clue.
Posted by ER doctor at 1:50 PM 4 comments
Labels: Issues
Nurses need to be aware that a Physician backlash is taking place and be prepared to defend our practice and ability to perform patient advocacy.
5.12.2007
Nursing ratios
4:1 nursing ratio...sounds like a good idea on the surface.But I tell you what - if you're in the ED waiting room, dying of a brain bleed; or if you're sitting in triage with an open fracture in excruciating pain, you'd appreciate one tenth of a nurse if it meant basic treatment......
...."Basically, nursing ratios are not good for the patients when there are already not enough nurses.......unless, of course, you're one of the first 4 to arrive".
Posted by ER doctor at 11:05 AM
I have been on both sides of this issue, formally against ratios while in ED Nursing Management, and now very much for them working at the Staff Level. I am convinced I am on the right side now, more evidence here. I made comments on ED Doctor's post regarding my support of ratios and got an interesting comment that followed. Worth a read.
ER Doctor in this post and another on Nursing Unionization express anger that Physicians and their organizations did not take an earlier stance on this issue and others and are not organized like the Nurses which advocates the balance of power to Nursing. Hey, thanks for the complement or at least acknowledgement that were kicking your butts. Were used it. We have to every day just to keep things flowing and our patients safe. Hopefully, after you vent you will realize that our advocacy is to your benefit and patients benefit. Yes, some Nurses do take advantage of the ratio's but the overall effect is good for patients. I do sense your anger and see some of your points. Others are just plain wrong like a RN can be cooked up from scratch in 2 years.
In another post ED Doctor writes
5.23.2007
Letter to my peers on unionizing
(I will kindly *not* include myself in this)Doctors are stupid, because they have allowed this to happen.Still living in an era of the rich, private practice mentality...not accepting the fact that most physicians today are employees in one way or another. And instead of turning up their noses to unionizing, perhaps they should realize that they are now more like the average worker. They've allowed the nursing union to be the be the sole legislative voice on healthcare policy, to their detriment, and to the detriment of their patients.As the nursing union shouts "patient advocacy," they are trying to implement healthcare policy that actually hurts the poorest, sickest, neediest members of our society (I'll elaborate as needed). The whole while, the AMA/CMA (made up of mostly people who are completely out of touch with young physicians) asks for money, but does nothing to help their cause. Time after time, taking "no position" on matters that make a huge difference with regard to modern physician's issues. Case in point - the Governor's proposed tax on doctors and hospitals. The doctor's are getting fucked, and there is no unified voice advocating on their behalf. Therefore, patients are getting fucked, and healthcare is a complete mess. And where are the doctors? Where is their voice. What solutions are *they* offering?Doctors need to change their thinking, hold the medical societies accountable, (or refuse to join), participate in the legislative process, and drop the arrogance against unionizing. Or we can all prepare for complete chaos as healthcare continues to fall apart, without a legitimate beacon of leadership. As the doctors bury their heads in their arrogant asses, allow everyone else to take control, and then wonder why they are (directly) paying for a shitty healthcare system, run by nurses/chiropractors/optometrists/herbalists/and the 'people at the healthfood store.'Get a clue.
Posted by ER doctor at 1:50 PM 4 comments
Labels: Issues
Nurses need to be aware that a Physician backlash is taking place and be prepared to defend our practice and ability to perform patient advocacy.
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