Spotlight on Pediatric Emergency Care Volume 3, Issue 3, July 2005 In this Issue: New Tool Helps Train Staff to Improve ED Setting for Children Tapping into Your Local Physician Market New Cost-Effective Tool for Nursing and Ancillary Staff! Petrack Consulting is pleased to announce the development of a new training module to teach nursing and ancillary staff how to better help children cope with procedures in emergency and urgent care settings. The module includes a physical kit with specially selected distraction toys, books and music, and a 45-minute training video or DVD (with nursing CE credit). Look for Petrack Consulting at the following upcoming meetings, where we'll be launching our new training product--and making it available to you at a special exhibit discount! Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) Exhibitor Hall (Booth #312) during the Annual Meeting, September 15-17 in Nashville, TN. American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Exhibitor Hall (Booth #1702) during the national Scientific Assembly, September 26-28 in Washington, DC. Lisa Perry, our child-life specialist, and I will both be available. If you'll be at either meeting, please stop by to say hello--we'd love to meet you! Tapping into Your Local Physician Market Emergency department managers are constantly either pushed or pulled towards patient satisfaction concerns. It might be a new patient complaint from a family member concerned about lack of privacy with stretchers in the hallway. Or perhaps it's a complaint from a mom who's angry that a besieged nurse was rude to her son. Or it could just be that instead of any one problem today, you're looking at how patient satisfaction could be improved so you can attract a better payer mix--or just get some breathing space from senior administration. Yes, you have many reasons for focusing on patient satisfaction--some appropriate and necessary--some not so necessary. But as you spend time and energy on this omnipresent task, you might also want to consider another population of customers--physicians who refer patients to your department. In my experience, the communication that takes place among ED physicians and referring pediatricians and family physicians is extremely variable. At some institutions, all referrals go through the ED attending. While this may feel like a significant burden to the attending physicians, there is frankly no substitute for ongoing, consistent respectful communication between physician colleagues. If you can minimize the disruptions (e.g., with portable phones) while keeping up the communication, the end result will be community providers who truly feel connected with their colleagues in the emergency department. And that results in both better patient care and improved referrals. At the other extreme are departments where almost no communication takes place between referring and ED physicians. All referral calls might go through some sort of referral or communication center, where a "report" is given to a nurse or medic. While this system might seem more efficient, it can make community physicians feel alienated from their community ED. And over time, if the bad vibes continue, they may decide to seek care for their patients elsewhere. This summer might be a good time to evaluate what your department can do to foster a sense of "connectedness" between your department and community physician-providers. While there are certainly opportunities to do this at the administrative levels, you can also do it at the provider level by focusing on physician-to-physician interchanges that open the lines of communication and improve referrals--all while enhancing care for families served by your department. About Our Organization Created in 2003, Petrack Consulting is dedicated to helping physician and hospital leadership bring excellence to emergency services for children. We work collaboratively to fully understand our client’s needs, and then address programmatic initiatives with measurable outcomes. Our unique background in pediatric emergency medicine, administrative medicine, and organization development allows us to create uniquely effective solutions for enhancing emergency services for children.