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Doctors call on JCAHO to mandate improvements in the ER

Case Management Weekly, August 2, 2006

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Two leading experts in ER care are calling on the JCAHO to mandate an end to ER boarding and diversions.

"I'm from Chicago and I've never forgotten Al Capone's quote, 'You can get a lot further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone,'" said Kirk B. Jensen, MD, who has more than 22 years' experience in emergency medicine management and is now vice president of clinical operations for Best Practices. "It's certainly one of the hopes for the Joint Commission to mandate getting boarded patients out of the emergency room." One goal behind an Institute of Medicine's (IOM) recent scathing report on ER conditions, Jensen said, was to get some teeth for improving care.

Jensen spoke at an Institute for Healthcare Improvement audioconference this week titled "STAT Call: Hospital-Based Emergency Care: At the Breaking Point." Gail Warden, president emeritus of the Henry Ford Health System and chairman of the IOM's Hospital-Based Emergency Care Committee that did the report, was also a speaker on the call. Warden urged CMS to develop payment and other incentives to discourage boarding and diversion.

Source:Patient Flow Weekly, HCPro, Inc

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