Summary
Implementing good practices for humanizing work in a hospital Emergency Department
Affiliation of the authors
DOI
Quote
Yáñez-Caballero B, Velasco-Bueno JM, Rivas-Ruiz F, Gómez-González AJ, Canca-Sánchez JC. Implementing good practices for humanizing work in a hospital Emergency Department. Rev Esp Urg Emerg. 2023;2:70–7
Summary
OBJECTIVE. To describe the process of creating a manual of good practices for humanizing work in a hospital emergency department (ED), and to determine the level of implementation of principles outlined in the manual.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. Qualitative study to gain the consensus of experts, complemented by an observational study with descriptive statistics.
RESULTS. We created a manual of good practices for humanizing work in the ED, identifying 7 strategic lines in 32 sections and 169 good practices. On studying the implementation of the manual’s recommendations in the ED of Hospital de Benalmádena, Spain, we found that 51% of the good practices were implemented, 33% were not, and 16% were in the process of being implemented. We saw a high degree of implementation of recommendations related to “vulnerability” (strategic line 5), for which 78% of the good practices were evident. In contrast there was poor implementation for “care of professionals” (strategic line 4), a category in which 78% of the good practices were not being applied. Strategic line 2 (“communication”) had the highest proportion (46%) of good practices in the process of being adopted. Compliance with good practices categorized as essential was high (67%).
CONCLUSIONS. The manual facilitates an integrated evaluation of an emergency department’s implementation of good practices to humanize care that meets the needs of patients, families, professionals, and the institution. The studied ED’s implementation of the good practices was moderate, indicating there is a wide margin for improvement.