CASE STUDY

Case Study

Case Study

Multidisciplinary Team Assessment

Although a number of organizational settings involve teams and team work, few settings are as rich in detail as hospitals (Baggs Ryan Phelps Richeson Johnson 1992 pp. 18-24). Because of the increasing complexity of patient conditions and treatments, hospitals are turning to patient care teams as a means of managing their patient population. These teams are highly multidisciplinary - consisting of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists, and other healthcare workers (Cicourel 1990 pp. 221-242). Similar to teams in other settings (Fidel et al., 2000), a patient care team brings together healthcare workers with different backgrounds and expertise to focus on a single patient and the patient's problems. Although each team member may have different concerns, work, and motivations (Baggs Ryan Phelps Richeson Johnson 1992 pp. 18-24).They must collaborate and coordinate their activities to provide effective patient care. The concept of the multidisciplinary team is not new to health care, recent emphasis on quality, accessibility, and efficiency in the delivery of health care services has increased interest in interdisciplinary collaboration. In hospital-based psychiatry the multidisciplinary health team has long provided the foundation for comprehensive care, integrating multiple specialized treatment components within a stable and therapeutic treatment milieu. The multidisciplinary health team has also been a core feature of partial hospital and day treatment programs and of many outpatient public health settings, especially in more service-intensive models that address the care of patients who have severe and persistent illness. When Mrs. Smith was brought to the hospital the multidisciplinary health team became active and started doing their role accordingly(Fidel Pejtersen Cleal Bruce 2004 pp. 939-953).

Triage Nurse

Mrs Smith was taken to the department, where she was assessed by the triage nurse who gave her analgesics and ordered an x ray to be taken. Triage is the first point of clinical contact for all people presenting to the Emergency Department and the point at which care begins. Triage is a brief clinical assessment that determines the clinical urgency of the patient's presenting problem and culminates with the allocation of an ATS category, which determines the time and sequence in which they receive emergency care(Reddy Pratt Dourish Shabot 2002b pp. 651-655). Strong evaluation ability, quick and decisive judgment, and the ability to keep a cool head are all necessary skills needed to be a successful Triage Nurse. The nurse collects most information from the paramedics and emergency help.

Paramedics And Response Times

In Mrs. Smith's case her daughter had called an ambulance. The paramedics arrived in the ambulance and stabilized Mrs. Smith's condition and brought her to the ER department.

Paramedics are routinely first on the scene of an accident, the paramedic quickly assesses the situation and determines the proper course of action for each patient. If a person's injuries are life-threatening, the paramedic might choose to perform some sort of medical procedure right then and there, judging the patient's chance of making it to a medical facility without radical medical intervention to be slim to ...