Emergency Department Operated by the Childrens National Medical Center - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The object of analysis for the purpose of this assignment is Emergency Department as one of the most key services offered by the Children’s National. Undoubtedly, level 1 trauma center is one of the most notable strengths of the Emergency Department. This trauma center would assist the department to provide trauma patients with the highest level of surgical care. According to Stanford University Medical Center, this facility would greatly benefit the Emergency Department to improve a severely injured patient’s survival probability by nearly 20-25%. In other words, the level 1 trauma center significantly enhances patient safety, which is the ultimate goal of every patient care. In addition, it is a teaching hospital that offers clinical education and training to pediatric residents, fellows, and other graduate trainees each year. This departmental division plays a notable role in developing qualified pediatric professionals who can promote child safety. Well trained medical staff is another competitive strength of the Emergency Department. This strength assists the department to eliminate the chances of clinical errors to a great extent and thereby provide patients with quality care services. Furthermore, well trained medical staff can promote the overall productivity of the organization and address the needs of more number of children. The Emergency Department has developed a set of efficient processes in child care delivery. Therefore, it can avoid unnecessary delays associated with patient treatment and contribute to the fast patient recovery. Referring to Robinson and Pinkerton, while analyzing the operational efficiency of the Emergency Department, staff shortage appears to be the most severe problem affecting the patient safety. Reports indicate that staff shortage may lead to a series of other issues including worksite stress, medical errors, low-quality care, and unhealthy interpersonal relations. In an understaffed worksite environment, nurses are compelled to work under tough schedules and this situation in turn adversely affects nurse-patient relation, which is highly essential in case of childcare. Staff shortage will certainly reduce the overall productivity of the organization. In addition, this issue would always raise potential challenges to the hospital administration also. Rapid turnover of management and nurses is another major weakness causing troubles to the Emergency Department. Termination of nurses and other clinical practitioners would noticeably increase the Emergency Department’s operating expenses because the high rate of staff turnover would lead to an increase in recruitment as well as training expenses. In addition, the time delay involved between the voluntary employee termination and new employee recruitment would cause to reduce the quality of the patient care. Loss of experienced staff due to increased employee turnover is an untreatable problem as experienced staff can enhance patient safety more effectively as compared to a fresher. High-level staff/executives turnover also leads to a frequent change in the management structure of the Emergency Department; naturally, this situation would end up in inefficient care delivery. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More