The emergency department (ED) is a busy and dynamic department, providing a broad range of care, from acute to non-acute, 24/7. Yet due to a fluctuating patient flow, properly planning staff and resources can be challenging. So how do you ensure that your ED can handle the healthcare demands now and into the future? We recently organized a round-table session with doctors and nurses to come up with a blueprint for the ideal ED.
In the first article of this series, we address several of the most important considerations of an ideal ED and in the second one we cover the ED layout. In this third article, we combine the ideal blueprint with our field expertise to help determine what is actually feasible in practice. We used this knowledge to create a checklist indicating initials steps to take towards your ideal ED.