Hi - At last year's STN Conference Dr. Coscia, Chairman of the Verification
Review Board, stated that Level II centers would no longer be able to be
verified given the scenario you describe. A number of TMDs from Level II
centers around our state and, I believe, the rest of the country wrote letters
to the Board protesting this. We're less able to respond than you are, as our
general surgeons take call from home with an expected ED arrival time of 15
minutes or less and we have single-doc coverage in our ED for 6 hours a night
with no one else in-house to respond to codes. We were subsequently told that
we could continue to be verified so long as we have a PI process in place that
tracks this...how many times was the ED doc out of the department when a trauma
came in. We were very relieved at this, as I truly believe that if this
standard was in place our facility would not be pursuing re-verification
(coming up in a couple months) which would have been a real loss to our
community. John
John Bleicher, RN
Trauma Coordinator
St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center
500 West Broadway
Missoula, MT 59802
ph: 406-329-5603
fax: 406-329-5856
bleicher@saintpatrick.org
>>> smorriso@washoehealth.com 12/18/03 05:16PM >>>
Hi all
Our last review, 2002, the reviewer noted we had only one ED physician on at
night from 2am to 5am. He also noted this ED physician responded to patients
who coded in the hospital during those hours leaving the ED uncovered for the
duration of the code. His question to us was "What happens when a Level 1
trauma comes in and the ED MD is somewhere else in the hospital?"
This time period in the morning doesn't warrant 2 ED physician coverage. Our
trauma surgeon is in house, but doesn't sleep in the ED. He sleeps about 5 min
away. We are the only trauma center around and see 2200 to 2500 trauma
patients a year. We also do not have residents, all our Doc's are private
practice who take trauma call. If you are a similar center could you let me
know how you handle this.
1. Do you have 2 ED docs on at all times?
2. Does someone else respond to codes in your hospital?
Any help with this topic would be greatly appreciated.
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