ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the doc-to-dispo elements and focuses on the critical servers in the Emergency Department (ED). Many EDs across the country utilize team-based patient care. This operational approach employs fixed staffing and bed ratios that open and close as volume expands and contracts. Teams can be very effective. From a Lean perspective, they decrease movement and transportation in terms of providers moving to get supplies and to treat different patients and decrease searching for other providers for communication purposes. It greatly enhances communication by reducing the likelihood of needing complex communication devices such as phones, pagers, or walkie-talkies. Because of the fixed staffing in terms of nurses and physician staffing, each team’s communication is also enhanced by reducing the number of unique staff interactions that need to occur. For instance, an ED with no team-based care may have one physician managing ten patients with ten different nurses.
