Enumclaw Regional Hospital's Emergency Department Receives Washington State Medical Association Patient Safety Award

ENUMCLAW, Wash., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The emergency department (ED) at Enumclaw Regional Hospital (ERH) received the Washington State Medical Association's 2010 William O. Robertson Patient Safety Award for its new patient flow program that improved overall patient safety. In one year, the emergency department reduced door-to-doctor times, total time spent in the department, and the number of patients who left the department before being seen.

"Thanks to this award-winning patient flow program, our patients are now triaged and treated more quickly," said Dennis Popp, President of Enumclaw Regional Hospital. "We've dramatically reduced the number of people leaving our ED without being seen by 70 percent. Patients are spending more than 50 percent less time in the emergency department and nearly 70 percent less time in the ED waiting room. All of these improved metrics positively impact patient safety and quality of care, as well as reduce costs."

The emergency department at ERH is staffed by TeamHealth. "We worked with the hospital's administrative team, nurses, registration, lab and radiology department to develop a multi-disciplinary process improvement team that applied TeamHealth's best practices to help create this program," said Berhan Ghermay, M.D., a TeamHealth-affiliated physician who serves as the hospital's emergency department medical director.  "The team developed and tested the program and educated the entire ED staff so we could work in a collaborative effort to streamline and expedite the process from the time a patient enters our front door to the time they are discharged home or admitted as an inpatient. The improved metrics prove our program's success."

"It is rewarding to know we were able to establish a team to address a critical challenge and create an effective solution that has been recognized by our state medical association," said Popp. "We look forward to implementing this program in our new facility when we move early next year."

TeamHealth was the first recipient of the William O. Robertson Patient Safety Award in 2006 for its innovations in Patient Safe Transfer of Care.

Enumclaw Regional Hospital is a 25-bed critical access hospital serving the community of Enumclaw, Wash. It is one of five hospitals within the Franciscan Health System, part of Catholic Health Initiatives.

About TeamHealth  

TeamHealth (Knoxville, Tenn.) (NYSE: TMH) was founded in 1979 and has become one of the largest suppliers of outsourced healthcare professional staffing and administrative services to hospitals and other healthcare providers in the United States. Through its seven principal service lines located in 14 regional sites, TeamHealth's approximately 5,600 affiliated healthcare professionals provide emergency medicine, hospital medicine, anesthesia, teleradiology, and pediatric staffing and management services to approximately 525 civilian and military hospitals, clinics, and physician groups in 46 states. For more information about TeamHealth, visit www.teamhealth.com.

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SOURCE TeamHealth