Yesterday I was complaining about how labour-intensive our tests on the appropriateness of selected investigations had been.
Actually, we already had another avenue to explore. The Emergency Departments of ICHT use Electronic Patient Records (EPR) provided by FirstNet/Cerner. These records show what investigations and treatments are ordered and, usually, add a time-stamp when those orders were placed.
Month: October 2017
One of the main objectives for SortED was to move away from triage to a process more like Rapid Assessment and Treatment (RAT) where a doctor gets investigations and early treatments (Rx) underway during the initial assessment. The control arm of our ED study showed that serial processing still prevails, usually with 4 waits before treatment is given.
The practical part of research on Emergency Department systems grinds to a standstill when the winter rush starts. Nurses and Consultants are far too busy dealing with the winter influx of patients to help. Fortunately both the clinical trial work involving volunteer nurses and the expert review of patients’ records by our three ED consultant volunteers have been completed so the Somerset team are now able to analyse the data while ED staff focus on their hectic ‘day job.’