Development of an Emergency Preparedness Protocol in an Office Setting

Office-based practices are not as stringently regulated as hospitals or ambulatory surgical centers. The lack of government oversight places the responsibility heavily on office-based practitioners to properly exercise their professional ethics to ensure their patients are receiving the highest quality of care while remaining safe. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to develop and implement an emergency activation protocol for a local gastroenterologist office in Southern Illinois that promotes emergency preparedness. The emergency activation protocol provided recommendations for staff training on emergency preparedness, mock codes, checking the crash cart, monitoring of the patient, medications available, and equipment that should be easily accessible. A checklist for assigned roles in an emergency scenario and a code tracking form was also created. Staff was educated on the emergency activation protocol by a video recorded Zoom lecture and then participated in a simulated mock code event. A survey was conducted with the use of the Likert scale, and the results revealed that the staff believed their confidence in handling a medical emergency improved after the implementation of the project. The facility plans to continue to utilize the protocol to enhance provider preparedness for a medical emergency in the office setting