Registration fees:       $225 per NDHA member  |  $275 per non-member

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer, Compliance Officer, Emergency Department Personnel, Joint Commission Coordinator, Medical Records, Quality Improvement personnel, Risk Manager, Legal Counsel.

OVERVIEW:

This webinar will focus on the legal and risk management challenges that health care providers face while caring for patients in the high-risk environment of the emergency department (ED). This session will instruct participants on how to comply with selected Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital Conditions of Participation (CoPs) and Joint Commission (TJC) standards often found to be problematic for ED staff. Examples include how the visitation law affects the ED and the CMS anesthesia standards on the use of deep sedation or moderate sedation; CMS hospital requirements regarding the use of standing orders; and alarm fatigue and its impact, including TJC National Patient Safety Goals and sentinel event alert. TJC’s standard on patient-centered communication will be discussed including the interpreter, low health literacy, and collecting race and ethnicity data in the ED. Common medication errors that occur in the ED will be reviewed, as well as how to initially avoid the errors. CMS made changes to medication management and opioid use, which is an area where hospitals are still struggling to meet compliance.

• Discuss legal and risk management issues in the ED and recommendations, including how to reduce the most common medication errors.
• Recall the importance of documenting the use of interpreters for patients with limited English proficiency.
• Recite that the visitation law requires the ED to give patients written information on their rights, including information on the hospital’s advance directive policy.

SPEAKER:

Darlene Evans is a health care quality leader with more than 25 years of experience, specializing in clinical and regulatory operations management, accreditation readiness and response, staff training, and business development. She has a proven track record of helping clients identify opportunities for improvement to achieve sustainable, long-term results. She has also helped lead organizations through operational effectiveness, infrastructure, staffing and productivity, fiscal stewardship, leadership development, and care delivery. Previously, Darlene worked with the Joint Commission International as a hospital and ambulatory care accreditation surveyor for health care organizations in Turkey, India, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and China. In addition to her consulting and surveyor experience, she has served in leadership roles including chief nursing officer, vice president of patient care services, assistant vice president of nursing services, and director of quality management and education. Darlene earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in nursing from Troy State University in Troy, AL. She is Lean Six Sigma certified and is a registered nurse, a certified Professional in Healthcare Quality, and a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the National Association for Healthcare Quality.

This speaker has no real or perceived conflicts of interest that relate to this presentation.