By Tiffany Thompson, The Stanly News & Press, Albemarle, N.C.
Aug. 6–Stanly Regional Medical Center (SRMC) continues to move towards better healthcare as the facility begins to make changes to the emergency department (ED).
Brian Freeman, vice president of Ambulatory Services, decided the ED needed to move in a different direction following an evaluation of the department and its physician group.
The result was the partnering with ApolloMD, which is a physician owned and operated national group practice with nearly 30 years of experience in Atlanta, Ga.
“We expect great things from ApolloMD and we’re excited about the things to come,” Freeman said.
The partnership officially began on July 1 and is currently in its beginning stages. Freeman expects for the new physician group to be fully staffed by next June.
“It may not take that long. We may get lucky and have several physicians come on board with experience, but we may have to wait for new graduates in May that want to complete a fellowship with us,” Freeman said.
ApolloMD provides physicians for hospitals by recruiting board certified or board eligible physicians in emergency medicine.
While ApolloMD also provides anesthesia services, they will only be providing emergency medical services for SRMC.
The physicians are compensated based on the patients they treat and the procedures they perform. Also, the level of patient satisfaction may play a part in the compensation.
The physicians coming on board will not be employees of the hospital, but another round of changes to the department will include new employees of the hospital.
These employees, or medical assistants, will be a staffing change to the department. They will be responsible for registration and triage, but their work does not stop there.
They will also improve customer relations with patients and family members by communicating to family about patient updates while enforcing the department’s 2-visitor policy.
“When I came on board, I realized the department lacked customer satisfaction,” said Lori Shue, RN, BSN, CEN director of Emergency Services.
Shue said many of the changes to the staffing was the result of complaints the department has received from patients and their family members.
Among these complaints was the wait time between registration and being admitted to a room.
That is also changing as the medical assistants will be able to complete bedside registration and triage, though this service will only be available daily until 11 p.m.
Six medical assistants will rotate through shifts, which is phase one of the staffing changes.
Phase two will include increasing nursing competency and education and phase three will incorporate CNAs.
Additional changes include installing televisions and courtesy phones in the patient rooms as well as including a more advanced eye care capacity and detailed diagnostic testing at the bedside.
As a way to accomodate these changes, plans are under way to complete renovations for the department’s entrance and lobby.
“We are constantly taking a look at our processes and ways to cut down patient turnaround time while increasing our quality and proficiency,” said Freeman.
Contact Tiffany Thompson at (704) 982-2121 ext. 24 or [email protected].
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