Northeast Georgia Medical Center – Gainesville Emergency Department

Gainesville, Georgia

Northeast Georgia Medical Center – Gainesville’s emergency department team understands the prevalence and negative impact of ED boarders. In the 80-bed department, staff have worked to not only decrease turnaround times but also to improve the experience for boarded patients. Initiatives to improve this include hospitalist rounding, rapid response team coverage, improved meal tray quality, physical therapy staffing in the ED, environmental services rounding, leader rounding, sacral dressings for boarders over age 65 years, pharmacy tech medication reconciliation and the implementation of standard work to initiate EEGS, dialysis and specialty beds as needed.

The pediatric readiness initiative has been a focus for this ED for several years and continues today. After completing a pediatric readiness assessment, several gaps were noted. The ED worked to develop pediatric champions and increase comfort with caring for pediatric patients with the addition of a robust ENPC program. Front-line staff have been instrumental in improving processes and increasing the quality of care delivered to all pediatric patients. This awareness and passion for excellence have spread from nursing to other disciplines such as the EMS team and respiratory therapy clinicians.