Hospitals partner with Premier to improve ED care

The Premier Healthcare Alliance announced this week that it is partnering with 14 hospitals in 10 different states to identify ways to improve safety, efficiencies and patient satisfaction in emergency department visits, which account for 10 percent of all ambulatory care in the U.S.

Through efficient teamwork and communication among ED professionals, and consistent, accurate and timely diagnosis, the two-year collaborative will work to reduce clinical practice variation, improve care quality, increase patient satisfaction and improve patient outcomes.

"Nowhere is teamwork and communication more important than in a high-risk, high-pressure area such as the ED," Karen Profitt Newman, VP and chief nursing officer at Baptist Hospital East in Louisville, Ky., said in a statement. "To best serve the patients we treat, we need to be prepared for any and every type of situation that could be presented. Working with and learning from ED professionals and experts from across the country will help us do just that."

The initiative first will focus on ED patients with chest and abdominal pain, two of the most difficult and nonspecific diagnoses. It also will examine avoidable and unplanned ED readmissions in order to better understand the factors and outcomes related to patient flow and throughput.

For more:
- read the Premier press release