Urgent Matters announces winners of ACEP's Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award

Sep 20 2013

Urgent Matters, Blue Jay Consulting, and Schumacher Group are pleased to announce the winners of the Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award, a newly created competition to foster innovation in emergency departments nationwide.

The Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award, supported by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), provides an opportunity for multidisciplinary teams to be acknowledged for cutting-edge innovations in emergency medicine. The award provides a platform for sharing effective solutions that address common issues facing the emergency care community.

Innovations, or tools, were submitted using an online form and sent to Urgent Matters for initial review. Forty submissions were received. A review committee comprised of Blue Jay Consulting, Schumacher Group, and three representatives from the Urgent Matters Editorial Board selected the top rated tools using assessment criteria.

Urgent Matters, Blue Jay Consulting, and Schumacher Group would like to congratulate the following team for being chosen as the first winner of the Emergency Care Innovation of the Year Award:

Behavioral Health and Detoxification Meeting Demand for Services
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Mercy Hospital
Submitted by Michael A. Turturro, M.D., FACEP, chief of emergency services at UPMC-Mercy

The UPMC team used existing resources and cultivated community partnerships to develop several interventions that were implemented both in the emergency department and in inpatient units, with the goal of improving and streamlining the care and management of behavioral health and detoxification patients. The results include a significant decrease in length of stay for both discharged and admitted mental health and detoxification patients.

Turturro will present his team's submission at the ACEP and Urgent Matters: Emergency Care Quality Improvement in the Era of Public Accountability Pre-Conference on Oct. 13, 2013 in Seattle, Washington.

We also want to congratulate the three Recipients of Distinguished Recognition:

Upstream Crisis Intervention
Grady Memorial Hospital
Submitted by Michael Colman, director of emergency medicine services operations, Grady Memorial Hospital

Grady Memorial Hospital leveraged community partnerships to develop a model that reduces unnecessary ED visits by providing the patient with an alternate care sites from the traditional EMS to emergency department transport while ensuring a conservative approach to patient safety.

Medical Management Program
Lakeland Regional Medical Center
Submitted by Maureen Leckie, BSN, RN, director of emergency services, Lakeland Regional Medical Center

Frequent visitors to the emergency department create a unique challenge for already overcrowded departments. The Lakeland Regional Medical Center's Medical Management Program provides individualized care plans for frequent visitors presenting to the emergency department with chronic medical conditions.

eEmergency
Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center
Submitted by Jay Weems, executive director of Avera eCARE™ Services

At the touch of a button, rural clinicians and patients have virtual access to the eEmergency team of board-certified emergency physicians and emergency nurses who can assist in the management of critical conditions such as heart attack, stroke, and trauma. Often the bridge between patient presentation and the arrival of on-call physicians, Avera eEmergency uses advanced telehealth technologies to speed the initiation of diagnostic evaluation, reduce wait times, coordinate patient transfers, and expedite treatments.

Urgent Matters will feature the winning innovation, as well as the three Recipients of Distinguished Recognition, in an upcoming webinar. All submitted tools that met entry criteria will be posted to the Urgent Matters online searchable toolkit, a collection of strategies and tools developed by hospitals across the country to target specific issues facing hospital emergency departments. The toolkit is available at http://urgentmatters.org/toolkit.