Preparing for emergencies in the office

Have you ever had a person collapse in your waiting room? What did you do? Call 911? What is your obligation in an emergency situation?

Now is the time to think about acting in an emergency — before an emergency occurs. While it’s not expected every chiropractic practice to have the necessary equipment and personnel to provide full emergency medical services in every emergency, it is important that you consider the patient’s perspective.

It’s very likely that your patients and their family members expect that you and your office staff are trained, equipped, and able to deal with a medical emergency in your office. Patients have certain preconceived ideas about what a doctor should be responsible for and therefore expect a base level of care to be delivered.

For example: A practice might make it a policy that at least one staff member trained in CPR be present in the office when patients are present. Another, because of its close proximity to an emergency facility, may elect not to require CPR training of its staff.

If you do elect to require CPR training, your practice should pay for regular refresher courses and compensate employees for their time to take the classes. Other options include conducting in-house training or tying certification to employee bonuses.

The important thing is to make it easy for your employees to abide by the requirements and to make sure you monitor their compliance.

• Get an emergency kit and oxygen. Regardless of whether you require CPR training, your practice should have — at a minimum — a medical emergency kit and portable emergency oxygen with a positive pressure mask or a manual resuscitator.

You can find prepackaged emergency response kits from medical supply houses, and many doctors find they are well worth the cost. Obviously, someone on your staff must be trained to respond to a medical emergency and to appropriately use the emergency kit.

• Make the kit accessible. Once you buy the kit, don’t put it in a back closet or the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet. Instead, place it where it will be quickly and easily accessible in an emergency. All members of your staff should be made aware of its existence and its location to minimize response time.

Another caveat: Check your practice’s emergency kit regularly to ensure all medications are available, not out-of-date, and ready for the next emergency.

• Develop emergency procedures and policies. Your practice’s office manual should include procedures and policies for handling in-office emergencies. These should speak to the presence and location of emergency equipment (or an emergency kit) and specifically address what should be done in case of a medical emergency.

• Drill. Provide instructions for emergencies occurring when a staff doctor is in the office and for when no doctor is present. Moreover, you should reinforce this information in your practice’s new staff orientation as well as in regular staff meetings or in-services.

Many offices also perform annual or semiannual “drills” to ensure that their staffs are prepared to promptly and professionally respond to any on-site emergency.

John J. DeMatte IV, DC, a partner of DeMatte Chiropractic in Lehighton, Pa., provided this article at request of NCMIC. A summa cum laude graduate from National University of Health Sciences, DeMatte is one of the presenters for NCMIC’s “Starting into Practice” program. He can be reached at 610-377-1900.

The accompanying text is offered solely for general information and educational purposes. It is not offered as, nor does it constitute, legal advice or opinion. You should not act or rely upon this information without seeking the advice of an attorney.