Abstracts

Rationale: The Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at our facility has functioned as a primarily outpatient EMU for the past several years. This has been done successfully with proper safety stops in place. However, due to the workflow of this outpatient EMU, patients were discharged early in the morning and told they would be called in 1-2 weeks for EEG results resulting in a delay in patient care.

Methods: The outpatient EMU was converted to an inpatient EMU. This was done by including key stakeholders using a standardized and systematic approach to conversion of the EMU to an inpatient unit. The key stake holders included the section of the epilepsy program, the director of nurses on the inpatient floor, the director of neurodiagnostic services, the administrative supervisor in epilepsy and the manager of the Advanced Practice Providers in the neurosciences. These key stakeholders met weekly to discuss key issues and barriers and then disseminated the education to the respective teams.

Results: There were 160 patients who received single overnight vEEGs with the Outpatient in a Bed (OIB) status from 8/1/2020-10/31/2020. Patients who were admitted to the EMU for multi day vEEGs were excluded. It was determined that the average time for vEEG results was 14.9 days. The official go-live for the inpatient EMU was 1/4/2021. Patients who received vEEGs for the first three months post change were retrospectively reviewed. It was determined that every one of these patients received vEEG results on the day of discharge leading to no delay in plan and treatment change. (Table)

Conclusions: Using a systematic approach and including key stakeholders in the process, significant changes to the way in which a team functions can be made leading to improvement in patient care and in this specific case a decrease in time to receive vEEG results.

Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: n/a.