Davee Innovations Project Updates

 Spring/Summer 2008

August 11, 2008
Fritze Roberts has joined the Davee Innovations team as the new Project Coordinator. She comes to us with nearly two years experience as a project manager in the health care field, and with a strong interest in researching communication, palliative care, and emergency medicine.

May 7, 2008 - Nurses Week Poster Presentation
Barb Buckley, RN, presented a poster on Davee Innovations: Optimizing Communication in the Emergency Department at the annual Nurses Week event at NMH. You may view her poster here.

May 5, 2008 - CAT-T Education Sessions Begin
Today one of five CAT-T Education Sessions will take place during the month of May. All NMH ED Attending physicians, residents, nurses, EDAs, and unit secretaries are invited to attend. Also, we are including our ED Volunteer Advocates because of their role in the care process. We hope that everyone finds these sessions fulfilling and learns about communication in the ED and their everyday clinical practice.

April 19, 2008 - Abstact accepted at International Conference
Congratulations to the Davee Communication Group and senior contributor and presenter Gregory Makoul, PhD, on their abstract acceptance for "Adapting the Communication Assessment Tool to collect patient perspectives on medical-team communication in the emergency room" to the European Association for Communication in Health Care 2008 conference that takes place in Oslo, Norway during September 2, 2008 to September 5, 2008.

April 3, 2008 - CAT-T Education Pilot Completed
Eighteen nurses, unit secretaries, medical technicians, attending physicians, and resident physicians took part in a pilot of the Communication Assessment Tool - Team Education sessions. This pilot session lasted approximately 4 1/2 hours and involved a large group discussion, small group discussion, and a large group interactive presentation and discussion. The pilot was a success. Thank you to all those who participated.

Five CAT-T Education Sessions will be held throughout the month of May. For more information, please contact, Fritze Roberts, Davee Communication Project Coordinator, for more information.

Winter/Spring 2008

March 20, 2008 - Turbo Registration becomes process
Over the past few months, Barb Buckley, RN, Davee Nurse Leader, has deployed several tests of a Triage Re-Organization project that's goal was to improve process and flow in the triage area. The "Turbo Registration" is now performed simultaneously with the triage process in each triage booth. Turbo Registration helps improve flow and decreases time that patients wait for an initial evaluation.

March 19, 2008 - Feinberg School of Medicine, Lewis Landsberg Research Day
Sarah M. Donlan, MD, will be presenting "Emergency Department Medical Team to Patient Communication: Assessment of Effective Communication from the Patient's Perspective" from 3:15 pm to 4:15 pm at the Lurie Building. For a copy of the poster, please download the powerpoint file here.

March 10, 2008 - April 11, 2008 Patient Liaison in the Waiting Room
Maria Kuzas, RN, from Patient Services and Carol William, RN, from the ED have graciously become Patient Liaisons in our waiting room. They will be available for patients on the ED's busiest days - Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays from 11:30 am to 8:00 pm. Patient Liaisons will inform patients of the ED's process and flow, let patients know we have not forgotten them while they wait, and offer patients simple comfort measures (a warm blanket). This hopefully will lead to happier patients/families and ease some of the constant pressure on the triage nurses. Welcome, Maria and Carol!

Nursing course proposed for the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) Leadership Conference, 2009
Barbara Buckley, RN, has submitted a workshop proposal for ENA titled, "Team Communication: Simple Ways to Live Through the Capacity Nightmare."

Abstract acceptances
The Davee Communication Group is proud to announce that we have had an abstract accepted to Feinberg School of Medicine's Lewis Landsberg Research Day and another abstract accepted to SAEM! Congratulations, team!

February 21, 2008 - ED Volunteer Advocate Training
Barbara Buckley, RN, created and presented two ED Volunteer Advocate Training sessions. Ten volunteers are now trained to work in the ED waiting room providing comfort and information to patients regarding their ED visit. The training took approximately an hour and a half. Presentation materials are available here:
-  ED Volunteer Advocate Training PowerPoint
-  ED Volunteer Advocate Training Booklet
-  ED Volunteer Advocate Commonly Asked Questions

February 13, 2008 - NMH ED Triage Pilot Redeployed
The triage reorganization pilot was redeployed and the "Turbo Registration" will now be completed simultaneously with the triage process in the booths. For more information, please contact Barbara Buckley, RN, at bbuckley@nmh.org.

January 31, 2008 - Emergency Department Nursing Education Blitz Begins
Barbara Buckley, RN, will be giving an hour long presentation on communication in the ED during each session of the Nursing Blitz. The annual ED Nursing Blitz takes place throughout the month of February and includes a day of sessions on various topics relevant to ED nursing practice. Barb's presentation is available here.

January 22, 2008 - Best Practices in Clinical Communications Beta Test Site Training
Peter S. Pang, MD, Sarah Donlan, MD, Barbara Buckley, RN, and Laura Min Mercer, MA, attended a communication conference held at the Joint Commission headquarters in Oakbrook, Illinois. The conference was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Joint Commission. The day long conference included presentations from leading field experts including Davee Communication Group members Gregory Makoul, PhD, and Chris Beach, MD.

January 8, 2008 - SAEM Abstract submission
The Davee Communication Group submitted three abstracts to SAEM.

 January, 2008 Davee Innovations Report

Fall/Winter 2007

 December, 2007 Davee Innovations Report

December 4, 2007
The NMH ED Triage pilot begins. Barbara Buckley has developed a new process to help streamline the patient flow. Registration will now be part of the front line triage team enabling the triage nurses to better provide patient care. For more information about the Triage pilot, please contact Barbara Buckley, RN, at bbuckley@nmh.org.

 November 14, 2007 Emergency Department Advisory Committee Meeting

November 12, 2007
Enrollment for the Communication Assessment Tool-Team began in the NMH ED. Our goal is to collect baseline data to identify the ED medical team's communication strengths and areas for improvement. We hope to enroll 400 patients. For more information about this project, please contact Davee Project Coordinator, Laura Min Mercer, at laura-mercer@northwestern.edu. The CAT-T utilizes the department's investment in Snap Survey Software and will collect data via tablet computers (mobile interviewing).

The Davee Innovations team welcomes Kirsten Engel, MD, as a new member of the Davee Innovations team. Dr. Engel's research has focused on patient-provider communication in the ED and was a semi-finalist for the SAEM Annual Meeting Young Investigator Award in 2006.

The Davee Innovations team welcomes Barbara Buckley, RN, a 17 year veteran of the ED. She will be working on specific communication projects geared toward improving the patient experience in the waiting room and triage. Barb will be collaborating with other ED nurses and staff.

Optimizing the Physical Environment to Improve Quality of Care

Kendall Hall, MD, researches different ways to optimize the emergency department environment. The Northwestern University Department of Emergency Medicine has gained national exposure through her research and collaboration with Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Hall's research has focused on:

• Identfication of current knowledge about the built environment and impact on patient care

• Identification of patient and caregiver needs

• Identification of Emergency Department best practices

• National presentations of findings

• Creation of new mezzanine space at Northwestern Memorial Hospital

For more information about Dr. Hall's work, please watch for her upcoming article, "The Impact of Emergency Department Design on Timeliness of Physician Assessment," which will be published in a special healthcare design issue of Environment & Behavior.

Summer 2007

 June 5, 2007