Samaritan ER operation undergoing adjustment

MOSES LAKE — Ongoing adjustments to treatment options in Samaritan Hospital’s emergency room was a topic of conversation at the regular meeting of the hospital commissioners June 19.

The emergency room was the subject of a 10-month remodel, with the project completed earlier this year. Hospital officials said one of the goals of the remodel is to reduce the time patients wait for treatment.

Hospitals are evaluated, and evaluate themselves, on a range of different criteria, and one of them at Samaritan is how many patients leave the ER before they can be treated. One of the ER changes was the addition of two rooms for patients with relatively minor illness or injury, a program called “flex care.” The flex care rooms were supposed to help reduce waiting times, and the number of patients who leave before treatment.

But so far the change hasn’t produced the desired results, said chief nursing officer Becky DeMers. “We were a little frustrated because we opened up the flex care but then we weren’t hitting our targets,” she said.

“But we opened up two more rooms but we didn’t change the way that we operate.” Hospital officials did some research and discovered the treatment plan needed some work. “We had more rooms but we didn’t have an improved process. Every charge nurse or mid-level or doctor that came in was the flavor of the day. Depending on who had the strongest voice was how that shift ran.”

Hospital officials tried some different methods of operation in the ER, but still weren’t reaching the desired result, DeMers said.

Hospital officials adjusted the treatment protocol again, DeMers said, and that seems to be working. “The advanced practice clinician is sitting out front, and when a patient comes into triage, if they’re lower-level (illness or injury), they go right in and see (the medical provider).”

DeMers also presented information on the hospital’s transfer rate, which is the number of patients who have to be sent elsewhere for treatment. The transfer rate also is above the target.

Many patients must be transferred because the kind of care they need isn’t available at Samaritan; DeMers cited the example of advanced cardiac care. But some of the transfers are due to a shortage of staff, especially nurses, at times when the hospital is busy. Hospital officials have hired additional nurses, she said, who will be joining the staff over the next few months.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.