WASHINGTON (Oct. 22, 2014) — Urgent Matters, Blue Jay Consulting, and Schumacher Group are pleased to announce the winners of the Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award, a competition to foster innovation in emergency departments nationwide.
The Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award provides an opportunity for multidisciplinary teams to be acknowledged for cutting-edge innovations in emergency care. The award, now in its second year, provides a platform for sharing effective solutions that address common issues facing the emergency care community.
Innovations, or tools, were reviewed by a committee comprised of representatives from Urgent Matters, Blue Jay Consulting, Schumacher Group, and the Urgent Matters Editorial Board. The top rated tools were assessed based on their novelty, exportability, effectiveness, clarity, and on their ability to be used by a multi-disciplinary health care team.
Congratulations to the following team for being chosen as the winner of the 2014 Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award:
- Acute Care Plans
- Massachusetts General Hospital
The team at Massachusetts General Hospital developed Acute Care Plans to improve the coordination of care for high frequency emergency department (ED) patients. These plans are notes connected to their ED Information System, which give quick guidance to ED clinicians regarding the patient’s treatment plan, disposition, and who to contact if the patient is in the ED. Since implementation, the number of visits and length of stay for high frequency ED patients selected to have an Acute Care Plan have decreased.
Dawn Williamson, RN, will represent the Massachusetts General Hospital team and present details of the winning innovation at the Urgent Matters Innovations in Patient Safety conference in Chicago, Oct. 26.
Congratulations to the following teams, who were recognized as Recipients of Distinguished Recognition:
Structured Electronic Follow-Up for Patients Discharged from the EDEdward Hospital
In order to improve care transitions for patients discharged from the ED, a team from Edward Hospital developed and implemented a structured process for electronic patient follow-up. This cost-effective system enabled patients to get the attention they needed with minimal employee resource requirements.
Risk-Free ED ProgramInova Fairfax Medical Center / Inova Fairfax Children’s Hospital
A team from Inova developed and implemented a mandatory program to improve patient care, reduce risk, and increase reliability in a large ED group practice model. Based on their program, the hospital was able to significantly reduce their loss reserves, professional liability cost, length of stay, time for consultation, and more.
All submitted tools that met initial criteria will be posted to the Urgent Matters online searchable toolkit, a collection of strategies and tools developed by hospitals across the country to target specific issues facing hospital EDs.
