Northeast Georgia Medical Center – Barrow Emergency Department

Winder, Georgia

Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s Barrow Emergency Department staff noticed an uptick in both pediatric volume and the acuity of care being provided. In response, the team pursued Pediatric Readiness designation, ultimately becoming the first Level 3 emergency department in the state to earn this recognition. The journey required a multidisciplinary effort to strengthen pediatric education, expand staff competencies, standardize pediatric order sets, enhance simulation training and improve pediatric equipment to ensure availability of appropriate resources to safely care for patients of all ages and sizes. Today, the pediatric work group continues to review data and evaluate processes to ensure the 10-pediatric readiness remains embedded in the 10-bed ED’s culture of excellence.

As the team worked to improve patient safety, throughput and overall patient experience, it focused on reducing the time from the ED admission decision to inpatient bed placement.  The “ED2B,” that is, ED to inpatient bed, initiative brought together emergency, inpatient, hospital medicine and ancillary teams to streamline communication and improve patient flow. They implemented early notification to inpatient charge nurses and standardized nurse handoff using an IPASS-based EPIC Smart Phrase, as well as strengthened multidisciplinary collaboration around admissions. By improving coordination and creating a more predictable admission process, the ED2B time improved to less than 80 minutes.