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The Use and Need for Standard Precautions and Transmission-Based Precautions in the Emergency Department
Protecting ourselves, colleagues, and patients from infection is paramount to delivering safe care. Implementing policies and practices in the emergency department that support current infection control methods to reduce or prevent the transmission of infecting agents is our professional responsibility. This article seeks to provide a review of standard precautions and transmission-based precautions along with a few common examples of patient presentations to the emergency department.Education and Culture: Mitigation for Workplace Violence
Workplace violence in the health care setting is 16 times greater than the general workplace.1 In Massachusetts, Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating has recorded the rate of assaults against health care workers as 4 times greater when compared with other industries.2 On June 3, 2010, The Joint Commission (TJC) released a sentinel event alert entitled “Preventing Violence in the Health Care Setting.”3 This TJC alert suggests that increased training and education be provided with regard to identifying potentially violent individuals, de-escalating anxious behaviors, and managing violence.Poison Control in the Emergency Department
There were 61 participating poison control centers in 2007 for the American Association of Poison Control Centers 2007 Annual Report of the National Poison Data System, with 2,482,041 human exposures reported. The health care setting calls to poison control throughout the United States accounted for over 15% of total call volume.1 Many of these calls were generated from the nation's emergency departments.
