Emergency Room Mission File

Congratulations! You have been hired as a member of an elite group of investigators dedicated to designing unique and innovative solutions to the health challenges of this century. Use the available resources in your mission file to complete each mission you are assigned. In this first mission, you will investigate health care delivery and propose innovations in clinical medicine.

Case Brief

Tina Williams, a forty-five-year-old mother of three, is sitting at her desk when she begins to experience severe stomach pains. She took an antacid earlier in the morning, assuming her dinner the night before had led to indigestion, but the medicine does not seem to have helped and the pain is getting worse. One of her coworkers notices her obvious discomfort and suggests she visit the emergency room at the nearby hospital. Tina is not a fan of hospitals, but she knows she might need some medicine if she is going to be able to get back to work and meet one of her many looming deadlines. Reluctantly, Tina gathers her things and drives herself to the hospital.

As she walks in the building, she feels a bit dizzy, but she attributes this to the intense sun of a summer day. She walks up to the main desk and signs in. The clerk hands her a packet to fill out and asks her to take a seat. Tina fills out the multitude of forms, noting the stomach pain and nausea as her primary symptoms. A half hour later, she hands her paperwork back to the clerk and waits to be seen. An hour passes and her name is called. A nurse finds her in the waiting room and asks more questions about her symptoms. Tina reports that she has felt a bit fatigued lately, but she has attributed this to trying to work and keep up with the schedules of her children. Her neck and shoulder feel a bit tight, an obvious reminder of the weights she lifted last night at the gym. The nurse updates her chart, noting the new symptoms, and tells her she will be called back shortly. Over the past few days, there have been many patients visiting the ER with a simple stomach virus, so the staff triages her case as noncritical.

Another hour passes. Tina sits patiently and does not want to bother the staff. Her stomach pain is intensifying, but two gurneys have just rushed by with the victims of a car crash. Obviously, there are people here who need more immediate attention. Another hour passes. Tina notices that her chest now feels tight and decides to approach the desk. What Tina does not know is that the blood clot that has lodged in her heart is preventing this vital organ from pumping blood to her body. Her vision fades to black as her heart becomes too weak to service her brain. She collapses in her chair. The doctors work for almost forty minutes trying to revive her, but almost five hours after she entered the emergency room, Tina Williams is pronounced dead from a myocardial infarction. Her family arrives at the hospital, devastated and wanting answers. Their biggest question—if she been seen sooner, could this have been prevented? Unfortunately, the Williams family will never know.

Mission Statement

Your mission is to design a emergency room department that takes efficient patient care to the next level.

Timely patient care can be the difference between life and death. Hospitals and emergency care centers strive to provide quality care to all who enter, but time is of the essence. A local ER is looking to you for innovation. Using knowledge you have gleaned in the previous courses about emergency medical careers, diagnostic testing and patient evaluation, human body systems, and medical interventions, you will analyze the workings of an emergency room, discuss inefficiencies, and work with a team to design a more efficient emergency medicine delivery system. Work with your team to propose innovations that will take the medical community one step further to solving this sometimes fatal problem.

Consider the following complaints and comments about emergency rooms as you brainstorm your design. You do not need to address every concern on the list, but use the complaints to guide your research.

Congested hallways
Long wait times for lab work and imaging results
Slowdown in care when a trauma arrives
Tedious movement of heavy and bulky equipment from room to room
Inadequate nursing/physician coverage for all patients
Long wait time for pediatric patients who become upset and uneasy
Slow speed of cleaning and prepping rooms for the next patient
Limited ability to track patients as they move within the hospital
Limited access to and long wait time for specialty services (such as psychiatry, orthopedics, oncology, or surgery)

Note: As you work through your solution, you will also review research techniques and proper documentation of sources, practice presentation skills, and discuss project management.

Mission Completion Tasks

To successfully complete your mission, you must accomplish the tasks listed below. Check off each task upon completion and approval by your teacher.

TASKS:

1. Type list of top five health-related challenges of the twenty-first century and associated solutions. (Activity 1.1.1 Mission: Innovation)

2. Complete Research and Documentation Scavenger Hunt. (Activity 1.1.2 Research and Documentation)

3. Complete summary and share information from article that relates to the emergency services mission. (Activity 1.1.2 Research and Documentation)

4. Produce Gantt chart for ER problem. (Problem 1.1.3 Emergency!)

5. Compile a complete Emergency Care and Treatment Admission Form for a fictional patient. (Problem 1.1.3 Emergency!)

6. Present Final Problem Solution to class. (Problem 1.1.3 Emergency!)