Why a Brooklyn ER tracks 'meaningful goodbyes' as a quality metric

BROOKLYN, N.Y. —

The emergency department at Maimonides Medical Center, after losing a long-time charge nurse to a sudden cardiac event last fall, began tracking a metric most U.S. EDs do not: how often, when an unexpected death is identified in the department, the patient’s family is given enough time and privacy to say a meaningful goodbye.

The metric was originally proposed by the unit’s chaplain. The medical director told Scrubswire it has “changed the way we run the room.”