The teams at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital Pediatric Emergency Department understand the importance of delivering good patient care and a quality environment for staff to thrive. Addressing these challenges has always been a priority but became even more significant in 2022 when they, like many other hospitals around the country, were experiencing surges in patient cases while avoiding staff burnout.
Creating spaces to handle surge
By mid-year, the pediatric ED teams were doing their best to handle surges as they came and to support each other during them. To handle the overflow of patients, the waiting room was portioned off into small cubbies to allow for more patients while maintaining some privacy between them. Then, while they had not originally intended to use these cubbies as treatment areas, the frequent influx of patients necessitated it.
As a temporary solution, nurses were using vinyl dividers to keep patients separate but quickly realized that they caused issues in the pediatric setting as they were unsteady, unsightly, and, most importantly, could not be adequately cleaned. This brought to the forefront a new and pressing challenge: find an infection-control-friendly solution for creating private patient areas during surges.
Marvella Cephas, Nursing Director of the Pediatric ED and Interim Director of the Pediatric ICU, who is not only responsible for the two departments but is one of the biggest advocates for improving how they operate, began searching for a solution. She discovered Silentia screens at a local Emergency Nursing Association chapter meeting where she met our Silentia representative and learned about the capabilities of our vast screen system.
The resulting solution was a series of cubbies created by 6-panel wall-mounted folding privacy screens. Each screen featured our brilliant and lighthearted “Children at Play” imagery. The design allowed for the screens to be folded in and out to accommodate patients and their family members sitting in chairs between them while providing privacy from adjacent patients.
Positive feedback across the board
The feedback on the change was overwhelmingly positive. Cephas told us, “Staff love them,” and have seen the benefits of improved efficiency and a higher quality patient experience. She shared that kids enjoy the colorful creativity of the space.
As added validation, on a recent visit from The Joint Commission, Cephas and her team were praised for switching to Silentia privacy screens over the previous solution.
“These screens are giving us the ability to make makeshift treatment areas during the surge…and I love the fact that they are pretty.”
“Zen Den” addresses staff wellbeing
The story doesn’t end there. Given the circumstances surrounding healthcare over the last couple of years, resilience and rejuvenation were a major focus of Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital and its administrators. So, while developing the patient overflow solution, Cephas worked with us to create a “Zen Den”, a self-care space for her staff.
