Balancing non-emergency patient care with critical cases: Can you maintain quality in a healthcare crisis?

Using Telehealth for non-emergency cases can allow healthcare providers to offer remote consultations, reducing strain on physical facilities while ensuring patients receive timely care. For instance, a patient with a recurring skin condition can consult a dermatologist via video, receive a diagnosis, and get prescriptions without visiting the clinic. This model is particularly effective in crises, as it prioritizes critical resources for urgent cases, while still managing routine or chronic conditions remotely, enhancing patient access and optimizing care delivery.

In a healthcare crisis, balancing non-emergency care with critical cases requires strategic precision. ⚖️ Triage Wisely: Prioritize critical patients while ensuring non-emergency cases are managed efficiently through telehealth or delayed interventions. 📊 Optimize Resources: Allocate staff and tools where they’re needed most, maintaining quality across all patient interactions. 🛠️ Streamline Processes: Implement fast, flexible protocols to adapt swiftly to the shifting demands of a crisis. 🤝 Communicate Clearly: Keep all teams aligned with real-time updates, ensuring everyone understands priorities without compromising care standards.

In order to maintain quality in a healthcare crisis it is important to understand the difference between performance and output. The output is not always in our control. Our best chance of managing a crisis is the performance. That is a variable that can be controlled. As a clinical research scientist working on various terminal diseases we have three steps we always follow 1. Regular training with updated standards. 2. Motivation and Purpose Building for your team. 3. Creating an ecosystem of care and not overworking people working in a crisis sector.

Entenda e organize o serviço: - Defina as categorias de atendimento; - Desenhe o processo; - Defina os indicadores; - Estabeleça SLAs**; - Treine o time; - Analise criticamente o indicador. Observe o histórico do serviço, quais são os picos de atendimentos e o que quantifique o que fica fora do fluxo. **(Defina tempos para cada etapa do atendimento, por exemplo: - Retirada de senha > Recepção - Recepção > Triagem - Triagem > Médico Treine o time em cada etapa do processo para que a realidade siga conforme o planejado).

During a healthcare crisis/emergency, working cohesively as a team is crucial in ensuring good patient outcomes i.e reducing both mortality and long-term morbidities. 📍 Using appropriate triaging protocols, your team is able to identify patients in critical conditions and separate them from those with minor injuries/medical conditions. More resources in terms of man-power and equipment should be dedicated to those with life threatening conditions. 📍Use codes such as code blue or code red to mobilize your teams. For a particular patient, the team leader should be in charge of Airway while the rest divide themselves to handle Breathing, Circulation, Disabilities and Exposure. Conduct primary and secondary surveys.