The Davee Mission
Optimizing Communication in the Emergency Department
The overall mission of these three initiatives, created in 2003 by the generous support of the Davee Foundation, is to improve the patient experience in the Emergency Department(ED) by optimizing care, communication and transitions. The fast-paced, high threat environment of the ED presents many challenges, different from other healthcare settings. In this high stakes, high risk environment, when the patient and healthcare team does not have a preexisting relationship , and when testing and treatments may have important consequences, both the technical decisions and the human relationships must be optimized. These initiatives will focus on these human relationships and interactions. We hope that the lessons learned through this initiative will be applied not only in the ED at Northwestern Memorial Hospital , but also in ED’s throughout the United States.
The first Davee initiative focused on enhancing patient services by devising innovative service delivery methods, developing quality measures and process management tools, increasing efficiency, and ensuring high quality expert urgent care. The work in this initiative to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosing and treating patients in the Emergency Department lead to improving the triage and intake process, developing real-time process controls, and the creation of the observation unit for patients requiring less than 24 hours of care.
Working off the success of the first Davee initiative, Davee 2 looked to ensure that patients are at the center of the care process by optimizing communication between doctors, nurses, patients and families in the emergency department. The goals of this project were accomplished by using patient and family feedback to devise solutions to meet their important needs during the stressful process of emergency care. Through aggregating knowledge about communication in the medical environment and among high performance teams and applying the lessons to the emergency department. Finally, by integrating the best practices into the daily operations of the department as well as the educational programs for students, residents, and senior clinicians.
The current Davee initiative, Davee 3, is looking to work off of the successes of Davee 2 to advance care in the ED in three main ways. The first is to promote seamless transitions in patient care especially around the time of discharge. Secondly, to utilize medical informatics to improve patient care by incorporating electronic health records that aim to improve both the continuity and quality of patient care. Finally, to work to more quickly, effectively, and safely bring new advances in evidence-based practices into patient care and management. For more information about the current Davee initative, please visit our current project tab.
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