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Ellie is a bright and bubbly, yet dedicated new nurse in the Emergency Department at Chicago Medical Institute. Dr. Harry Styles, meticulous, hardworking, and driven, is the head of the department. Ellie's little q...
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Harry didn't come to find me until late that evening. I suspected he had more to drink before coming to talk, but I didn't bring it up.
"I'm sorry, Ell," he said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you."
"I forgive you," I said, looking hesitantly into his eyes. "You know I love you, Harry. I love you so much. I'm just worried about you. I'm afraid you're going to really overdo it one of these days. Or that you're going to get addicted. You've seen what that does to people. You treated addicts during your residency. It's not pretty."
"I know, I know," he said, brushing my hair back and kissing my temple. "I'll keep it under control, I promise."
"So what did Durand say that made you so upset?" I wondered, desperately wanting to change the subject.
"I told her about my proposal, the big one I've been working on. I was going to present it to the committee in December, but she shot it to hell."
"Really? Babe, I'm so sorry. I thought it was brilliant."
Harry had been researching ways to improve efficiency in the pediatric ER. He was particularly struck by the design at Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit Medical Center. Their structure was state of the art, and they were able to give their patients an unprecedented 29-minute guarantee, meaning any patient, no matter how serious or mild, would have contact with a doctor within 29 minutes of their arrival. It was a bold claim, but they seemed to make it work. Their emergency room was divided into "pods", each of which functioned with some autonomy, each having its own doctors, nurses, and specialists.
Harry's proposal was to adopt the pod structure for our new pediatric ER, maybe not with the 29-minute guarantee just yet. His plan proposed five pods or zones as he called them, each with a different focus: trauma, critical illness, neurological, structural (for breaks, sprains, dislocations), and a fast track zone for urgent-care type complaints. Each zone would have a specialist for that particular zone; for example a pediatric neurologist for the neurology zone, as well as doctors, nurses, PA's, etc. who had some experience in the neurological sciences.
Each zone would contain ten beds, all fully equipped in case there was an overflow from the other zones. Each zone would also have a particular child-friendly theme. The ones at Children's Hospital of Michigan had a different sea creature for each pod. Harry hadn't gotten that far yet, deciding on specific themes. But I still thought the overall idea was brilliant. He had even contacted Children's Hospital of Michigan regarding the efficiency of their plan and to make sure he wasn't stepping on any toes by using the same idea. He had thought it through so thoroughly, but now this woman walked in and pretty much crushed the whole idea.
"What was her problem with the design?" I asked.
He shook his head. "I don't know. She basically said it won't work, and left it at that. I hate her already."
