Task force releases recommendations for improving ERs

More training for emergency-room nurses and doctors is at the top of a list of 46 recommendations from a special task force charged with improving emergency care.

The committee was put together in January after several complaints about the care Winnipeggers were receiving at emergency rooms.

• CBC MANITOBA INDEPTH: Read a summary of all 46 recommendations (PDF file)

Jan Currie, who headed the emergency care task force for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, says the solution is not just about finding more nurses, doctors and beds. She lists a few others: "Education is the big one. Information technologies, certainly, to be able to track what's going on both in the emergency room and upstairs. Acceptance by the staff of some principles around the way that we treat people."

In addition, Currie says a new training course for all 600 emergency room staff in Winnipeg will begin in September.

Reassessment nurses have already been hired at three hospitals to check on patients as they wait to be treated. Curries says patients are already noticing the difference.

"If there are comforts we can provide, that reassessment nurse would do that. If there is information we can give patients about how long they may need to wait or what the steps are, and what happens next, the reassessment nurses are doing that," she explains.

"If their condition changes triage nurses have always watched for condition changes, but the patients weren't aware of it. We need to make patients aware that someone knows them, is concerned about them and is watching their care during that period."

Currie says all Winnipeg hospitals will have this position within a few months.

Nurse practitioners are also being hired to treat long-term care patients who need emergency care.

Currie says the health authority has also launched a pilot project at St. Boniface Hospital in which every patient's file is tracked by computer.

Links related to this story:

WINNIPEG REGIONAL HEALTH AUTHORITY: Read the full report (PDF file)