Update 7/1/22
Hey there ! Volumes have been low low and then high high…very unpredictably erratic. Thank you for your patience and flexibility with this!
1) STARTING WEDNESDAY 7/6/22 AT 11am we will call the NW dedicated AMR ambulance “NW1” directly for transfers from 11a – 11p at 806-282-5713. You can call the truck for emergent transfers as well but if they don’t answer or if you want to call dispatch directly this would still be fine to do. We do not want to cause any delays because of this process but it is an attempt to optimize use of NW1. Attached is the set of questions that dispatch asks and you can just go down the list answering the questions for NW1. They will have this same form.
If there is a non-emergent transfer that becomes ready at 1030 we can wait until 1100 and call the truck for the transfer. If there is a 1050 pm transfer the truck may call it in for you but it would be expected that another AMR will take the transport as they would be on OT if they took it. Please send me and Melissa an email if you experience any issues with making contact with NW1 etc. If they get two calls in close proximity they will take one then come do the other as long as neither are emergent. If they are on a transport and we call with an emergent one, they may ask us to call dispatch directly.
2) Employee Performance Reviews will be from July 5 – 19. Melissa and / or I will do our best to meet with you all 1:1. Please help us with this; approach us about doing this at work or if you are off and not doing anything you can text us and drop by where we are to get it done. Thank you!
3) HOW DOES THE MARQUIS “WAIT TIME x minutes” GET CALCULATED ? I want to review this as you may not know how that time is determined. This is a rolling average of how long it takes us to complete the initial triage or red plus. If we complete one at 0205 that takes 20 min (anything over 12) and we don’t get another patient arrival then that will become the only number used for the average for the next 2 hours. You may not have anyone in the FED but the sign out front will say there is a 20 min wait time. Of course this is a metric corporate follows because patients are less likely to come in with longer wait times. Y’all are really great at getting patients back and taking care of them quickly and the sign should reflect that so please be aware of this and get the triage / red plus complete asap.
4) I have 5 Daisy Awards to hand out to FED staff – way to go !!! I’ll give them out then let you know who they were later 😊
5) Staffing – Chad had his last day this week and will start as the Stroke Coordinator next week ! Congrats and best wishes ! Amanda Johnson was the stroke coordinator and decided to go back to the bedside so starting 7/17 she will be an ED Float FT NT RN between the FEDs and main…what a great resource. Also, we have a new employee who did orientation last week and will soon start on the unit, welcome Tiffany Dominguez. We needed to add to our list of Tiffanies ! The travelers finished up last week and were a big help in difficult times and greatly appreciated.
6) Please be diligent in upholding EOC issues. Last week we rounded with a corporate audit and found copious amounts of paper not in sleeves and exposed tape. Tape can be behind something just not on the front. ALSO, another finding were some nutrition items that were expired. These recently arrived so I believe that they arrived expired! Therefore, we have to look at all nutrition and medical supplies we put up to make sure we are putting things on the shelf that are in date. Thank you
7) IT IS THE 1ST OF THE MONTH AND ALL THE CART CHECKS AND FACILITY WIDE EXPIRATIONS ARE DUE AS NOTED IN THE BACK OF THE DAILY AND MONTHLY LOG FOLDER. CHARGE NURSES AND ACTING CNs FOR EACH SHIFT, PLEASE LEAD YOUR SHIFT IN GETTING THESE ITEMS ACCOMPLISHED.
8) A couple of months ago some of you participated in an employee engagement survey, thank you for your entries. Of course there were some opportunity areas and I’ll be working on these and sharing later. I smiled with the top categories and wanted to share them with you. When I interview new staff I almost always mention that the most underrated part of a job is how important the people you work with are in creating a positive environment. Our top categories on the survey (on a 1-5 scale) were: 4.37 Teamwork, 4.31 Employee Relations, and 4.24 Quality. I’m really happy that you like working with each other and gave one another a great teamwork score. Great teamwork and quality are very closely related. Tell your teammates they are awesome today !
9) Reminder – don’t leave an O2 bottle in the portable single carrier, it isn’t for storage, only transport. If an O2 bottle is below 500psi, you change the tag to empty and put it in the empty rack.
10) Lots of HealthStream due !
11) The safety message this week was about hallway clutter – remember that items must be stored on only one side of the hallway.
12) For a short period we were stocking rabies vac in the pyxis but pharmacy has removed it.
Thanks for all you do, let me know if you need anything. Speaking of, many items are on back order and we are short on some critical items. I know CS is working on finding sources.
Andrea
