Not only did survey results improve, but also spontaneous compliments to the staff from appreciative patients. More Ideas Additional improvements made by the team include portable phones for ED physicians so that the ward clerk no longer had to track them down. The team also installed a physicians' hot line for complaints and compliments. This should bring to the team's immediate attention any issues the patients' attending physicians have with the ED, such as a missing report or lab result. Not only will the hotline provide the ED with a chance to correct any errors or omissions quickly, it will also serve as an early warning system for defects in the ED's processes.
Compliments are important, too.
People need to know when they are doing something right. Although not part of the original initiative, a new computer system is proving to be supportive of the team's efforts to improve service. The first phase of the new system, installed in December 1999, tracks a patient's passage through triage to bed to being seen by the nurse, treated by the doctor, and finally discharged. The patient receives a printout, in Spanish and English, with the diagnosis, the ED physician's name, the nurse's name, medications administered, and discharge instructions. In the second phase of the system, due to be up and running in March, the patient's attending physician will automatically be faxed a copy.