The Medical and Nursing Management of the Lanzarote Emergency Service is participating in the 23rd National Congress of Hospitals and Healthcare Management, organized by the Spanish Society of Healthcare Executives (SEDISA) and the National Association of Nursing Executives (ANDE), which brings together some 3,000 health professionals in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to share experiences and discuss new challenges in healthcare management.
The heads of the Lanzarote Emergency Service, Emilio Martínez, and Noelia Estupiñán, presented in their communications at the Congress the hospital impact of the integrated management of primary and specialized emergency care, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of this integration implemented since 2020.
During his speech, Martínez explained the Emergency Model of the Lanzarote Health Area (MULAN), which coordinates the teams of professionals from hospital and out-of-hospital emergencies under the same management. "A project - he insisted - that facilitates communication between the different units, previously dependent on different managers, which makes it easier to detect problems and apply solutions adapted to the specific area of emergencies."
Emilio Martínez, medical director of Emergencies, stressed that "the comprehensive management of Emergencies has allowed in these two years to reduce the average waiting times for medical assessment, which has decreased by twenty-eight and a half minutes."
On the other hand, it is also noted that the referral routes of patients from Primary Care Emergencies to external consultations of various specialties have been equated with those followed by hospital Emergencies.
Service managers say these changes have helped improve the quality of care perceived by patients as evidenced by quality surveys and the decrease in the number of complaints.
More agile assistance
They also stressed that this new system simplifies administrative procedures and allows emergency physicians to temporarily alternate their work in the hospital with primary care emergency points when it is necessary to cover vacancies, which guarantees more agile assistance with experienced personnel in the field of emergencies.
The Emergency service is currently attended by the hospital unit and four Primary Care centers: Tías, Valterra, Titerroy and Playa Blanca, the latter next to the hospital have medicalized ambulances.
Transversal vision
The speakers explained that MULAN responds to a transversal vision of urgent health care that puts the patient at the center and addresses the urgent pathology in a global and non-segmented way.
The MULAN has led to the creation of a functional organizational chart aligned with the Canary Islands Emergency Plan, facilitating this integration under a single management and a Technical Unit and Coordinators in the different Urgent Care Points (PAU) that facilitates direct consultation to specialties in areas such as Traumatology and Ophthalmology, among others, which help to avoid duplication.
