Quantifying off-hour emergency physician coverage of in-hospital codes: a survey of community emergency departments.

Background: Community emergency physicians (EPs) are often required to respond to unstable patients outside of their department during off-hours.

Objective: The primary objective of this study was to describe the critical care responsibility of community EPs outside of their departments.

Methods: A one-page survey was mailed to emergency department (ED) directors of 10 states and Washington, DC.

Linking residency training effectiveness to clinical outcomes: a quality improvement approach.

Background: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)'s Outcome Project requires training programs to use external measures such as quality of care indicators to assess their effectiveness. A practical, quality improvement (QI) process was implemented at Henry Ford Hospital to enhance the training program's educational effectiveness and clinical outcomes.

Methods: A QI process consisting ofa modified Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle was applied to residency and fellowship curricula in a medical intensive care unit (MICU).