Horn Memorial Hospital has been offering emergency services
to the community for the past 50 years. The
variation of services have changed over the years, but the focus remains
constant, and that focus is the patient.
The accessibility of having a physician available 24/7 with
highly trained support staff in the community is invaluable. Horn Memorial is certified as a level IV
Trauma Center which means that their role is to provide evaluation, stabilization,
and diagnostic services prior to either admitting or transferring patients to a
higher level trauma center. Horn staff
takes this role seriously by maintaining their trauma training, and constantly
evaluating areas for improvement. Once
such area that was a recent focus was the “door to ECG time.”
The door to ECG time was identified as an opportunity for
improvement to more consistently meet the quality measure of obtaining an electrocardiogram
(ECG) within 10 minutes of the patient presenting to the Emergency Department
(ED). An ECG is something Horn does on
every patient who presents with chest pain or symptoms related to a heart
attack. After strategically evaluating
the current process, the team implemented a “Cardiac Alert” overhead page that
is heard throughout the hospital. The
Cardiac Alert page brings together key staff from the laboratory, radiology,
and Medical/Surgical/Pediatric unit to perform specific tasks in an efficient
manner. This team approach allows
several steps to be completed simultaneously, and ultimately has made the
difference in consistently meeting the goal of ECG completion within 10 minutes
of the patient’s arrival.
The Horn Quality staff stated,
“Time is of the essence for cardiac patients and improving our ECG time is a
definite benefit. The sooner a patient can be identified as having a cardiac
event, the sooner necessary treatment can be provided. The improvement on this
quality measure would not have been possible without the teamwork we have at
Horn Memorial. Bringing together key
personnel from each department to break down the process and gathering input
from frontline professionals is what brought us to a successful outcome.”
Joe Nicholson, had first-hand
experience of this process when he presented to the ED at Horn Memorial
Hospital in July of last year. Nicholson
commented, “The emergency staff took fast and sound measures; their actions
saved my life that day.” Luckily for
Nicholson, Horn Memorial Hospital was there to diagnose and stabilize him in
the Emergency Department before transferring him to the city for more
specialized care. He further stated, “I
thought my life was over at the age of 40, but upon completing cardiac rehab, I
know my life has many great years to come, and I owe it to the ED and Cardiac
Rehab staff at Horn Memorial Hospital.”
