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Unnecessary steps in the emergency department

Posted By Pragmatism

"Unnecessary steps in the emergency department"

About: Box Hill Hospital

(as a parent/guardian),

This is more a suggestion. 

My daughter came through emergency recently with a broken finger.

5 minutes triage

5 minutes admin

30 minutes waiting for fast track nurse (no one else was in the waiting area)

30 minutes waiting for a doctor to determine the need for x-ray

30 minutes waiting for an x-ray.

I get the need for prudence to ensure safety and determine the correct procedure. But there is surely scope within those constraints for pragmatism. It was clear that she was not in immediate danger and that the extent of the injury would only be determined by x-ray. Can we authorise the triage nurse to send us straight to x-ray? This would free up time from the fast track nurse and doctors and cut 1 hour out of the process

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Responses

Response from David Plunkett, Chief Executive, Eastern Health 5 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
David Plunkett
Chief Executive,
Eastern Health

Submitted on 14/05/2018 at 7:04 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 15/05/2018 at 9:19 AM

picture of David Plunkett

Dear Pragmatism

Thank you so much for sharing your suggestions following your recent experience attending the Emergency Department at Box Hill Hospital with your daughter.

You provide a great suggestion that I will provide to the Director and leadership team within the Emergency Department for their review to see what is possible within the quality and safety framework all health professionals must operate.

FYI - we do have certain conditions where the triage nurse can initiate tests such as x-rays / blood tests.

Many thanks again Pragmatism and I trust your daughter's finger is on the mend.

Kind regards

David

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Response from David Plunkett, Chief Executive, Eastern Health 5 years ago
We have made a change
David Plunkett
Chief Executive,
Eastern Health

Submitted on 10/01/2019 at 11:59 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:32 PM

picture of David Plunkett

Dear Pragmatism

Thank you again for your feedback and now that we are some months since your experience, I thought I would provide an update re some of the improvements we've been making to streamline processes and reduce the amount of time patients and families wait for care and service.

One of these improvements is that we have increased the number of nurses who are able to order x-rays so make sure there are enough to cover the hours and locations within the Emergency Department. As part of this we constantly review the time taken for x-rays to be taken to make sure this is within the maximum 30 minute waiting time standard.

We take feedback seriously and through your experience and those of others the team is constantly reviewing and looking to improve our care and service. I hope you agree that the changes made following learning of your experience demonstrate that.

Thank you and again Pragmatism and kind regards

David

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