In a news release Tuesday, Wrangell Medical Center announced its staff have recently collaborated with Alaska Island Community Services (AICS) to improve response time for patients coming to the medical center with critical behavioral health issues.
When a patient is considered to pose a threat to themselves or others, medical center doctors work with AICS specialists to evaluate the patient and determine whether they are safe to remain in the community or need to be transferred to another facility.
AICS behavioral health specialists Jenn Gogol and Elizabeth Brummet, and doctors Laura Dooley, Lynn Prysunka and Greg Salard worked with WMC's director of nursing, Denise McPherson, and quality improvement director, Sandi Calvert, to examine current procedures and improve response times.
“It took about a month to put it together,” said Kris Reed, WMC development coordinator. “It's just a step in the direction of AICS and WMC working more closely together.”
For instance, the medical center is making use of the AICS mobile laboratory for some simpler tests to help speed up response times. Before the collaboration, delays could sometimes hold patients up for as many as three days as each step was being conducted.
“It's a smaller step in a larger process,” Reed said.
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