16 recommendations made in review of Alberta emergency room death

An emergency room doctor is skeptical of recommendations for hospitals following the death of a man in an Edmonton ER last year.

Acute Care Alberta (ACA) has released 16 recommendations from a review into the death of Prashanth Sreekumar while he was seeking medical attention at an Edmonton emergency room.

Sreekumar went to the Grey Nuns Community Hospital on Dec. 22 with chest pains. He died from an apparent cardiac arrest after waiting nearly eight hours in the ER to see a doctor.

ACA announced it would be doing a review into Sreekumar’s death seven days later.

Recommendations in the quality assurance report (QAR) range from practical solutions that can be implemented at the site level in the short term to longer-term strategies that focus on system-wide improvements, said a news release from ACA Thursday.

Some of the recommendations include increasing staffing, improving patient flow, ER expansion, establishing an inpatient high-intensity unit, and improvements to triage.

The report also outlines various cardiac-related recommendations that include 24/7 coverage of an electrocardiogram (ECG) technician and a review of the chest pain nurse-initiated protocol.

Prolonged wait times in the ER, increase in health-care system overcrowding, and clinical decision support were identified as “health-system vulnerabilities.”

“ACA is working with Covenant Health and other service providers to implement the recommendations from a number of reviews to strengthen patient safety, avoid adverse events and help prevent similar tragedies,” said a statement from Hospital and Surgical Health Services Minister Matt Jones.

“Our thoughts remain with all families affected by adverse events, and we are committed to ensuring patient safety remains our highest priority.”

Covenant Health said it supports the public release of the QAR.

“We are focused on implementing the review’s recommendations and strengthening our practices,” said the health-care provider in a statement. “Our thoughts remain with the patient’s family during this difficult time.”