Phase II Course Descriptions

Addressing Unconscious Bias in Medicine

This session will provide a broad overview defining unconscious bias and its impact on communication and decision-making in our workplace.

Differentiate unconscious bias from conscious bias.
Explore the ways in which unconscious bias impacts communication and decision-making.

Administrative Challenges: Case Based Workshop

“So much to do, so little time…” As the new or established medical or nursing director of the emergency department, you are expected to create and share vision, answer complaints, run meetings, keep everyone happy, do shifts, be the expert, mentor your group, remove “bad apples,” grow volume, and if you’re lucky eat sleep and have a family. The presentation through interactive case based reviews, will identify, discuss and address multiple real world administrative challenges.

Define common challenges encountered by ED leaders.
Describe conflict and problem resolution with real world examples.
List critical leadership skills required for success.
Identify the resources necessary to be a successful leader.

AI and New Technologies in the ED

This course will discuss upcoming new technologies that have possibilities to improve both clinical care and operations in the emergency department.

Discuss technologies to improve clinical decision making while delivering care in the ED.
Discuss technologies to improve patient assignment in the ED with the possibility of balancing workload for providers for better satisfaction.
Discuss the use of Artificial Intelligence in Emergency Medicine as both an operational tool for leaders.

And What Else? The Rest of the Story

EDDA seeks to put powerful, actionable tools in the hands of ED leaders, which are capable of levering actionable change to make the job easier in complex adaptive systems. This “Open Mic” session closes EDDA with the remaining questions the participants want answered.

Provide answers to the “And what else do you need?” questions from the audience.
Provide pragmatic, actionable tools to the complex problems facing ED leaders.

Applying Lessons Learned

Hearing or having a great idea is a good beginning, but it should not be the end. Leave this conference with a concept and a plan for achieving it. This critical session will give you the opportunity to plan an actual implementation strategy. You will be matched up with others who have an interest in putting the same concept into practice. After a brief strategy discussion, you will begin working on the specific steps necessary to successfully execute a new process / program to improve your practice. Several faculty will be available to consult on your plan.

Define a specific practice improvement
Describe the intended outcome
List the critical stakeholders and barriers to success
Design an implementation strategy

Approaching Problem Providers: A Case Study

Effectively addressing problem performance can be a tremendous strength and a key to a high-performing ED. Conversely, ineffective approaches risk poor performance, disrupt teamwork, and can even derail a leader’s professional pathway. This session will use actual case studies to demonstrate useful techniques to address problem performance. We use live scenarios to demonstrate effective approaches for feedback, coaching and counseling, while offering helpful tips for participants.

Review the objectives of a healthy team and healthy providers in the ED.
List the common presentations of the problem provider (attitude, speed, quality, impairment, etc.)
Demonstrate differences and distinctions in 3 common interventions (feedback, coaching, and counseling).
Demonstrate how to appropriately advance a counseling continuum (from definition to expectation to specific performance to separation).
Discuss the fundamentals and pitfalls of documenting your encounters.

APPs in the ED

PAs and NPs, commonly referred to as Advanced Practice Providers (APPs), are becoming a common staple in modern day emergency departments. An ACEP Now article writes that the most effective ED patient flow model appears to favor teams of emergency physicians and PAs/NPs. However, what is the training background of these providers? How should they be utilized in your ED? Where do you find them and how do you retain them? Join this speaker as these issues are discussed so you can maximize the use of PAs/NPs in your ED.

Describe the education of Advanced Practice Providers.
Review Advanced Practice Provider roles in the ED.

APPs in the ED Discussion

As more emergency departments utilize APPs, questions remain about how to effectively use them. Is your ED struggling with APP recruitment/retention, supervision, and patient care issues? If so, this moderated panel discussion will bring together two expert perspectives from a physician and an APP to help solve some of these issues.

Review methods to enhance collaboration between physicians and APPs.
Describe the various roles APPs can play in your department.

Billing Primer

Leading a great ED requires many skills, including an understanding of the basic forces that drive revenue for your ED.

Outline the systems that determine ED facility payment.
Analyze the process of correct medication capture.
Review appropriate charge capture for procedures.

Billing/Coding/Observation

Billing and coding for observation services is a complex area fraught with regulatory intrigue and uncertainty. We will work to clarify the known and unknowns and go through the rules, regulations, best practices, and benchmarks to facilitate your observation unit’s financial success.

Outline the basic factors driving Emergency Department Observation revenue.
Explore methods for applying simple solutions to your local ED Observation program.
Describe strategies for appropriate use of Observation services.

Burnout in Emergency Departments: Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention

“Burnout is one of the most pressing problems facing emergency department professionals, as the job stressors rise while personal adaptive capacity (resiliency) falters. Definitions should drive solutions, so this talk focuses on pragmatic solutions to burnout.

Define burnout, rustout, engagement, resiliency, and passion reconnect.
Discuss why collaboration is beneficial.
Review practical starting points in implementing a collaborative model.

Clinical Quality and Service Excellence

As our grandmothers used to say, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” So is quality. Is it getting a blood culture before antibiotics, keeping patients informed, greeting private attending on arrival, admitting an increasing % of the ED patients…? The presenter will describe how quality and service excellence intersect, by presenting the different perspectives and ways to address them all.

Define quality from the various perspectives (Emergency. Phys, RN, Patient, Admin, PCP, etc.).
Describe the ways that we do (don’t) meet quality expectations.
Describe the A-Team, B-Team behavior and its influence on quality.
Explain the value of goal setting, measurement and feedback.
List tools to improve quality and service excellence.

Collaborative Leadership

Successfully leading an emergency department is a challenging task. Made even more difficult by a mediocre or poor relationship between the medical director and nurse director. During this session, we will discuss the importance of a collaborative leadership model and how it can help improve the ED team’s interactions.

Define the Collaborative Leadership Model
Discuss why collaboration is beneficial
Review practical starting points in implementing a collaborative model

Community Paramedicine Program

Describe how a Community Paramedicine program improved health for high-risk patients.

Review key components of a process improvement project utilizing a case study approach.
Develop a pilot project at your site.

Complaint Management

“Not another complaint!” People complain when they are dissatisfied. Add the anxiety, confusion and potential peril of an emergency and the number and seriousness of complaints increase. Complaint recognition and management are critical components of the successful ED leader. When handled properly, a dissatisfied and angry person can achieve satisfaction. Alternatively, the improper management of a complaint can lead to a disgruntled person who seeks retribution. The presenter will briefly review complaint causes, methods of prevention and a successful management methodology. The majority of the presentation will delve into several classic emergency department complaints. Underlying issues and methods of resolution will be discussed.

List the primary reasons that patients, families, staff, etc. become dissatisfied
Describe several techniques to prevent complaints, including The “Theory of Yes”, realistic triage, and resetting expectations
Describe methods to seek, investigate, and complaints from patients, staff, administration, etc.
Use interactive case studies to describe classic complaints, the underlying issues, and prospective and retrospective solutions

Complaint Management Cases

To effectively address complaints, we must get beyond the theoretical to the actual. This intensive workshop will provide the opportunity to address genuine complaints from the beginning, through the investigative process, and on to resolution. The presenter will provide worksheets and cases that will allow participants to assess, address, and document a variety of complaints.

Review and address patient and staff complaints
Communicate findings to complainant
Document reviews
Assign quality scores

Complete Journey from EHR Data to Actionable Insights

This workshop will familiarize the ED director with all of the steps necessary to unlock the actionable insights from the data of the EHR. Using a case-based approach, the presenter will discuss in detail how to move from a question (e.g. are we overprescribing opioids?) to metric development, data acquisition, data analysis, data visualization, and dissemination of insights to ED leadership and front-line providers.

Identify how the clicks and notes within the EHR are stored in your hospital's database and how SQL is used to retrieve the data.
Describe all aspects of data-driven knowledge creation that you can speak the same language as your data analysts (or even become the data analyst yourself!).
Identify how dashboarding software can be used to disseminate insights to leadership and front-line providers.

Creating a No Wait ED

Minimal to no ED wait times are a current advertisement ploy. How do we meaningfully meet this goal? This presentation will discuss give practical strategies to create an ED with minimal wait times.

Discuss setting a team vision and culture of continuous ED improvement.
Describe a flow team and flow improvement process improvement methodologies to improve flow.
Explain how intake and acuity based patient streams will decrease wait times.
Review how patient care teams even physician and nursing workloads and improve communication.
Discuss how metrics can drive performance.

Creating Your Dream Team

Knowing your department operations, knowing your team, things to do to weed out the good from the bad, setting a foundation, hiring the right staff when given the opportunity will be discussed. Examples will be used and have proven successful.

Discuss ways to build trust and credibility among your management team, front line staff and physicians.
Describe some techniques to engage and build your staff.

Crisis Communications

When communicating in a crisis, you need more than ordinary performance skills. Allaying fears and encouraging appropriate actions require specific communication competencies. This presentation will explore both basic and advanced presentation proficiencies.

Discuss how to confidently engage your audience and build relationships
Discuss how to organize your thoughts, handle tough questions and avoid awkward situations

Crowd Control: Reducing Boarding in the ED

Reducing ED boarding will require new strategies. The new era of healthcare reform gives a unique opportunity to evaluate and improve past practices. This course will describe an overcrowding scoring tool and will touch on developing a partnership with the hospital and inpatient physicians thus reducing length of stay and creating ownership for boarded patients.

Describe an overcrowding scoring tool
Discuss developing a partnership with the hospital and inpatient physicians
Review strategies to reduce length of stay and creating ownership for boarded patients

Crucial Conversations: A Leader’s Duty

Leaders have so many day-to-day responsibilities for which most must be carried out through others. Leaders have an obligation to provide feedback to the very people they lead. Confrontation is not easy. This is the single hardest and most uncomfortable action for leaders. This presentation will explore why confrontation is so uncomfortable for many leaders and review approaches and tactics that a leader can apply to carry out this important duty.

Review the key tenets of crucial / difficult conversations
Explore our personal communication style propensity under stress
Apply and practice conducting a difficult conversation

Dealing With the Dysfunctional and Marginal Providers: Improving Performance

The problem provider comes in many forms, among them: bad attitude, poor clinician, too slow, too fast, and even impaired. This presentation will focus on early recognition and rapid response, and will articulate two fundamental approaches for dealing with almost any problem performance issue.

List the common forms of the problem provider
Describe typical strengths and weaknesses that leaders exhibit when dealing with problem performance
Articulate two basic methods for initially approaching a problem provider
Identify appropriate preparation and delivery using these methods

DISC Profiling and Application for Leaders

One of the most fundamental skills for any leader is to successfully manage relationships. The secret sauce to leading people is being aware and understanding the tendencies and preferences of one’s self and others so that one can adapt approaches to achieve a successful outcome. This presentation will help leaders to quickly identify the 4 personality profile types and adaptation tactics to optimize interactions with the different types of people with whom leaders work.

Explain what DISC is and the four basic DISC profiles
Discuss the importance of recognizing DISC profiles in communicating and relating with people
Identify adaptive strategies to best relate with each DISC profile and optimize relationships
Apply and practice identifying DISC profiles and how to utilize this tool as leaders

ED Crowding Strategies

This workshop is an expanded discussion of techniques to reduce ED crowding. This will include a discussion of surgical smoothing role in reducing boarding and the necessary community resources.

Describe strategies to engage the inpatient team to reduce boarding
Describe ways to decrease inpatient length of stay to create inpatient capacity
Discuss OR smoothing and the impact on overcrowding
Discuss a tool to standardize discussion around overcrowding and assist with daily operations

ED Strategies to Manage Psychiatric Patients

The current ED management of psychiatric patients is a negative experience for both staff and patients. This interactive discussion will discuss strategies to best handle ED psychiatric patients.

Describe the current state of emergency psychiatry
Discuss a new model of ED care involving active treatment of patients
Describe the use of standard service operations principles to improve care and decrease ED length of stay
Describe innovative models around the country improving ED psychiatric care

EMTALA Advanced Cases

Even with a good working knowledge of EMTALA, common and more rare EMTALA situations can be challenging. This workshop will entertain various EMTALA situations and allow the group to work through solutions guided by the moderator. Advanced EMTALA cases will be presented & solutions determined by the group. EMTALA questions will be elicited and answers determined by the group as guided by the moderator.

Discuss options for managing EMTALA issues with administration & medical staff
Discuss how to prepare for the hiring process, including that retention begins with the leadership
Identify practical and best practice strategies for building a positive culture and department

EMTALA Primer

No law enacted before, or since, has had a bigger impact on the way hospital EDs must manage patients. Yet, these regulations are often misunderstood and interpreted inconsistently. The presenter will provide a foundation for understanding and implementing EMTALA in the current emergency care environment. These principles will be used in working through cases in the Advanced EMTALA Cases workshop.

Discuss basic EMTALA principles
Outline recent changes to EMTALA
Define obligations related to medical staff, on-call physician, and transfer
Recommend methods to enhance compliance
Identify resources for further study

Flow

This workshop will focus on practical step-by-step strategies to improve flow in your emergency department. It will provide a template for improvement to bring back to your own ED to start implementation.

Brief review of Lean methodology for improvement
Discussion of matching staffing with demand
Discuss the impact of creating different patient streams on ED flow
A team approach to patient care will be reviewed with a discussion on overcoming challenges to implementation
Discuss the creation of a “culture of improvement” in the ED

The Front End: Strategies to Improve Door-to-Provider Time

Door to provider time drives quality, throughput and satisfaction in the emergency department. Recent advances prove that is very possible to enhance the arrival experience for both patients and staff, dramatically improving all elements of patient care. Dr. Crane will describe the basic approach to fixing the front end, offering philosophical as well as pragmatic approaches to improvement.

Describe the significance of the Door to Doctor interval as it applies to quality, throughput and satisfaction in the emergency department
Explain why we must move from the traditional “Door to Doc” to a “Door to In-process” mindset
Discuss the three types of ED patients and the approach to designing patient streams
Describe key registration, nursing and provider front end best practices, highlighting the benefits and pitfalls of these advanced strategies
Explain how you will know you have made an improvement in the front end

Generations at Work

Our ED's currently employ five generations of workers, each with their unique developmental history and view of the future. The characteristics of each group greatly affect not only the current work environment but will likely play an even larger role in the future. The speaker will address the various generations encountered in the workplace, the complex issues you may encounter, and the best methods for recruiting and retaining these varied practitioners.

Discuss the 5 generations encountered in the workplace and their characteristics
Discuss the expectations of and how to best recruit, engage and retain these varied practitioners
Discuss complex issues such as loyalty, feedback/evaluation, career plans and work patterns
Describe the interactions between generations and its effect on the workplace environment

Implementation and Development of an ED Obs Unit

Build an observation unit from scratch and decrease ED crowding. Expand an existing observation unit to generate new ED revenue. Troubleshoot a failing unit to get back on track.

Describe how to design an EDOU.
Identify key strategies for staffing.
Describe challenges that many leaders encounter when implementing a new observation unit, and strategies for success.

Improving Service Operations: Key Concepts and Applications

A firm understanding of the fundamental principles that drive service operations is the critical first step for improvement. Knowing how to apply these principles to emergency department and inpatient flow will enhance your ability to drive your ED team towards operational excellence.

Describe the key elements of service operations and contrast ED as a service operation to other services we experience in our daily lives.
Explain the overall approach to improving service operations.
Describe the characteristics of widely adopted improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, TQM, etc.)
Show how different improvement methodologies apply specifically to ED improvement.

Integrating Telemedicine into Your ED Practice, An Introduction

Discuss multiple ways to integrate telemedicine into an ED practice.
Discuss different modalities of telemedicine that are currently used nationwide.

Is a Little Change Enough? Innovation, Imagination, and Inspiration

Description Coming Soon

The Low Hanging Fruit: Low/No Cost Operational and Quality Improvements

Does your greeter nurse give patients a urine cup when they walk in the ED? Do your PAs treat and release patients from the waiting room? Do all your teams run to a code blue?

Share improvements from EDs across the US that have had a surprising impact.
Discuss operational challenges and brainstorm how to fix them in a cost neutral way.
Discuss next steps as to how to convince leadership to implement these idea.

Measurements for Success and Who You Need to Convince to Fund your Telemedicine Project

Discuss and brainstorm strategies on what would work best for potential telemedicine projects to convince senior leadership to fund your project.
Discuss alternative forms of ROI aside from direct revenue to gauge financial success.

Measuring Success: Performance Dashboards and Key Metrics/Analytics

In the last 15 years, we have experienced a dramatic acceleration of the use of data to measure healthcare performance and outcomes. In fact, many key performance measures of our EDs and hospitals are now publicly reported, driving government and private payer reimbursement. Dr. Crane will present the key sources of ED performance metrics and benchmarking and when possible, present generally accepted standards of performance. The benefits and pitfalls associated with data-driven performance and public ally-reported measures will be discussed.

Outline the key ED performance measures
List the current generally accepted performance standards
List the key sources of performance and benchmarking data
Discuss the risks associated with financial rewards for publicly-reported measures

Medical Staff Relations

To achieve success, the ED providers must articulate and share a philosophy of partnership – among themselves and with the medical staff. We must deliver and be recognized as delivering high quality patient care while effectively and consistently addressing the needs of those with whom we work. This session will define the importance of and methods to effectively integrate with the medical staff organizational structure, particularly hospital related committees, etc.

Define model for group success
Describe the components of strong relationships and effective integration
List clinical services to provide/avoid
Define critical administrative processes

Metrics Madness: How to Build a Winning Team

The landscape of healthcare continues to be more metrics driven. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement states that “Quality is turning into outcomes management, and involves minimizing unnecessary variation so that outcomes become more predictable and certain”. As the healthcare system becomes more regulated, quality and its metrics will become more scrutinized. The presenter will provide a framework for how to analyze and improve your department’s quality. In this session the participants will learn how to look at quality metrics and develop a team based approach for success.

Define quality improvement
Review the dimensions of quality
Apply quality concepts to your ED
Discuss how to improve patient care and have it reflected in the metrics.

Nurses are From Saturn, Physicians from Jupiter, Administrators from Mars

More than anywhere else in the Hospital, effective collaboration in the ED is a matter of absolute necessity. Patient and staff safety and satisfaction depend on successful team work. In fact, competent teams find that work is easier and more enjoyable. Learning to “play well in the sandbox” is simply a matter of enlightened self-interest. This session will focus on the importance of and methods to build and maintain teams during change.

Describe the role of leadership and the importance of accountability in change management
Review the tactics to build collaborative dyad leadership of the medical director and nursing director
List models and tools for engaging and aligning your teams
Describe the different approaches of physicians, nurses, and administrators so that effective communication can be developed and maintained

Patient Experience: Beyond the Ordinary

Patient experience is in the process of replacing and expanding simple customer service in healthcare and in the emergency department. It requires an understanding of the entire experience versus simply what the patient’s opinion of those who provide the care, and includes the sum of all interactions in the entirety of patient care. What are the tools and techniques which improve patient experience while making the job easier for those who provide the care? The presenter will build on the previous EDDA 1 talk with a suite of solutions to this increasingly-important issue.

Define and describe patient experience, summarizing the material presented in EDDA for those who were not there
Define A-Team Toolkit solutions to improve patient experience
Describe how successful organizations have created team-based solutions to patient experience
Use case studies to show how these solutions improve patients’ experience while making the job easier for those who provide their care

Performance Improvement in a 24-Hour ED

The basics of performance improvement projects/rapid improvement events in an emergency department will be discussed. How to engage staff in standard work and providing feedback will also be discussed. A project will be shared between ED and CT and improvement of 14 min shaved off of our turnaround time.

Explain the power of the Huddle Board and Quick Fixes.
Describe how to use process mapping and gain input from all shifts and front line staff including physicians.

Practical ED Documentation

The ideal computerized ED is the elusive Holy Grail. The EMR promise to transform the inefficient ED to the modern information age has only been partially realized . . . and at the cost of “digital overhead” due to data entry, search for data, and lack of interoperability. This situation has been further complicated by little choice in which system you must use. Surveys have shown a major factor for graduating residents job search is which EDIS they will have to use. Despite these challenges, many benefits of EDIS go unrealized due to a lack of leadership, knowledge, and initiative. This presentation will address common EDIS challenges and solutions.

Discuss current ED Information Systems (generically), addressing common challenges.
List opportunities for improvement, utilization of data, & functionality.
Discuss operational changes necessary to achieve successful use of EDIS.
Identify future technology and enhancements on the horizon.

Recruitment and Retention of Emergency Physicians

Physician shortages are a constant challenge. It has the potential to become worse with increasing demands and record number of staff retiring. In this interactive session, participants will learn how to build a foundation that attracts and retains good physicians.

Identify some of the barriers to attracting and retaining physicians
Discuss how to prepare for the hiring process, including that retention begins with the leadership
Identify practical and best practice strategies for building a positive culture and department

Reducing Practice Variation

This workshop will develop concepts discussed in the earlier rapid-fire lecture “Reducing Practice Variation: Creating System-Wide Clinical Care Paths".

Explore existing and future clinical care paths/guidelines to improve clinical processes and patient outcomes
Discuss assets of technology that can support clinical decision making, as well as potential barriers
Share process improvement best practices and projects that reduce practice variation

Reducing Practice Variation: Creating System-Wide Clinical Care Paths

In a value-based world, it will be increasingly important to practice evidence-based medicine to appropriately manage patient populations. This session will describe the use of clinical care paths (AKA: guidelines) to improve patient outcomes and improves clinical process – for both the patient and the provider.

Describe how clinical care paths/guidelines can improve patient outcomes
Discuss how technology can play a role in clinical decision support tools
Review shared-decision making models to incorporate patient and family preferences into clinical processes

Regional ED Integration

Health systems are undergoing continued consolidation and mergers – similar to the airline industry decades ago. This affords great opportunity for both clinical and business efficiencies. As your system expands from a solo ED to many, learn valuable lessons to help guide your strategy and approach.

Identify the pros/cons of different employee models
Discuss how standardized process can enhance clinical workflows and patient outcomes
Describe oversight and governance committees to help with integration across multiple EDs
Share best practices with other ED leaders as they work to improve health system integration

Reimbursement

Without adequate revenue your ED will be starved of resources. No margin no mission is a basic tenet of being a modern ED leader. Appropriate billing and coding creates the revenue required to obtain the resources necessary to run our EDs well and deliver top-notch clinical care. The ED does not have to be viewed as a financial drag on hospital finances but rather through appropriate basic steps can be a profitable revenue center.

Analyze best practices for appropriate revenue generation and charge capture
Outline metrics and benchmarks to apply to your ED revenue generation and appropriate charge capture process
Explore methods for applying simple solutions to your local ED coding process

Risk Management

An emergency department is the vortex of conflict between the high expectations of our patients (society) and the inexact science of medicine. This battle ground is governed by well established case and statutory law, which determine how we should ideally respond. This highly interactive session will train the participants to analyze and manage particular complaints and medical legal problems. In small groups, cases will be presented, broken down, analyzed and then presented to the larger group for discussion.

Identify methods of diffusing potential medical legal situations
Describe the obligations inherent in the doctor-patient relationship, particularly in a situation of refusal of care (AMA)
List the factors allowing restraint, i.e. suspension of civil liberties
Formulate rules and regulations to safely discharge patients

The Rules of Business Behavior

The “Rules of Business” rule both what we do and how we behave. This session is devoted to describing the interactive behaviors, which govern all business relationships. The presenter will detail the general rules of conduct the “do’s and don’ts.” Specific language, though seemingly innocent, might be perceived by fellow professionals, administrators, and patients as inappropriate. You will learn how to set the tone for success in the department.

Describe how certain words and phrases in determine the attitude of people around you.
Craft your own golden rules of interaction that will set the tone in your department.
Formulate behavioral guidelines and use them to: a. Create standards; and b. Assess and guide your practitioners.

Sex, Drugs, and Your Role: Provider Mistakes and How to Move Forward

Sexual harassment is rampant. The opioid epidemic is increasing. Racism is inescapable. While caring for drunk patients is easy, caring for drunk doctors is much more complicated. Preparation is essential when dealing with sticky situations that involve your staff.

Discuss the hospital policy and legal ramifications for challenging situations, such as an attending coming to a shift intoxicated
Brainstorm solutions for certain uncommon but high stakes attending mistakes such as sexual harassment
Learn from other’s mistakes and share rare provider mishaps

Solving the Unsolvable: Effective Approaches to the Most Common Medical Director Quandaries

The Medical Director’s Role is fraught with problems, issues, and quandaries. Some have clear solutions, and some seem almost unsolvable. This interactive session discusses real problems and common issues that make ED Directors feel “stuck”. Approached correctly, however, even the thorniest problem offers a great opportunity for enhancing your role, advancing your department, and positively impacting patient care. Through active discussion and real-time case studies, we will explore effective approaches, new suggestions, ideas, and solutions.

Identify the most common “unsolvable” or recurring issues for ED medical directors.
Explain dysfunctional approaches that fail to solve problems, and may even perpetuate issues.
Describe critical skills for defining and categorizing problems that promote successful approaches.
Identify opportunities to re-frame issues and build relationships in order to produce desired results.

Successful Management of an Emergency Department Observation Unit

Improve ED throughput, decrease ED boarding, improve revenue. The use of EDOUs to manage patients presenting to the ED is increasing. Many ED leaders are unfamiliar with this care model and are challenged when confronted with the responsibility of implementing and managing a new EDOU.

Define key benefits of an emergency department observation unit and what distinguishes this from other forms of observation service delivery.
Explain the vital resources required to operate a successful EDOU.

Unconscious Bias: A Deeper Dive

The speaker will describe the significance of the Door to Doctor interval as it applies to quality, throughput, and satisfaction in the emergency department.

Identify ways to mitigate the impact of unconscious bias.
Discuss the domains of de-biasing, in order to remove unconscious bias from practice.
Apply techniques for recognizing and disrupting patterns of bias.

Using Data to Drive ED Performance

Does your ED overprescribe opioids? How would you even know? This talk will familiarize the ED director with the benefits (and potential pitfalls) of using a data-driven approach to ED optimization. Topics discussed include how to best choose and design a metric, how to move from data to dashboards, and how to disseminate newly-found knowledge to both leadership and front-line providers. This talk is an overview which will prepare the attendee for an in-depth seminar on the same topic.

Explain how to design a metric that is feasible, impactful, and valid.
Explain how dashboards can be used for feedback at both the leadership and individual levels.

Utilization and supervision of APPs in the ED

PAs and NPs are part of the emergency care workforce. Nationally, over 60% of emergency departments (EDs) utilize these providers. Building on the prior lecture, this workshop will take a deeper dive into onboarding and supervising PAs and NPs in the emergency department. During this interactive workshop, these issues and more will be discussed so you can leave with “best practices” to institute in your ED.

Review strategies for onboarding and supervising PAs.
Review strategies for onboarding and supervising NPs.
Describe APP roles in the ED.

Violence in the Medical Setting

Workplace violence is a concern we can't ignore. How we respond greatly determines the safety of everyone involved. We will look at the escalation of violence in the health care environment and discuss regulation and mitigation.

Discuss strategies to promote safety, security and dignity for all involved.
Identify how we influence whether a crisis is prevented or escalates.

Work Life: Calculated Imbalance

Work life balance has never been more important to talk about than now. With ever increasing workloads and expectations, many of us lose sight of what truly may be important. This presentation will help start the path towards balance.

Define what work life balance is and how to utilize a life balance assessment.
Discuss the stress and conflict of lack of balance and its impact on personal and work life.
Review the steps towards initiating a work/personal life change.

The ACEP offices will be closed for several upcoming holidays