ERcast: Clinical Perspectives Podcast Preview
The summary below is from an episode of ERcast: Clinical Perspectives
Emergency department performance starts before the first chart and often slips at the end of shift. Ramping up quickly and ramping down deliberately are practical cognitive skills that help preserve decision quality, throughput, and patient safety across the entire ED shift.
Starting and Ending an ED Shift
- Early shift acceleration: The first minutes of a shift set your cognitive tempo, and a deliberate startup routine helps you reach safe operational speed without letting the earliest patients absorb avoidable inefficiency.
- Decision fatigue awareness: Decision fatigue is real, but the neglected problem is the front-end transition into high-stakes emergency medicine work, a distinction we tease apart in the episode.
- Last patient vigilance: End-of-shift slowdown can quietly erode care quality, so the final patient deserves the same diagnostic attention and ownership as the first.
- Shift transition habits: Simple personal systems for task organization and mental pacing can smooth both entry and exit from the department. We get into the practical habits in the episode.
- Sustained care consistency: Managing yourself on shift is a patient-safety skill, not just a wellness concept, because consistency across the whole shift protects against rushed decisions and missed details.
Subscribe to ERcast: Clinical Perspectives to listen to the episode.
Faculty
- Drew Kalnow, DO
Dr. Drew Kalnow is an emergency medicine physician and educator based in Columbus, Ohio. He completed his emergency medicine training at OhioHealth Doctors Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency. Dr. Kalnow is passionate about advancing emergency medicine through high-quality education, with a particular focus on simulation, learning theory, and innovative teaching.
- Matthew DeLaney, MD, FACEP, FAAEM
Dr. Matthew DeLaney is an emergency medicine physician and educator based in Birmingham, Alabama. A native of Mobile, he earned his medical degree from the University of South Alabama and completed his emergency medicine residency at Maine Medical Center.Dr. DeLaney has experience in both community and academic emergency medicine and is known for his commitment to teaching and medical education. He lives in Birmingham with his wife, Erin, who is also a physician, and their two daughters.
- Andy Little, DO
Dr. Andy Little is an emergency medicine physician and educator. He earned his medical degree from the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his emergency medicine residency at OhioHealth Doctors Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency, where he served as Chief Resident. He has received multiple national awards, including recognition from the American Osteopathic Association, American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians, and Emergency Medicine Residents' Association.
