PBS has aired a documentary about an Emergency Department in East Oakland, CA. You can visit the website for the film and your can also view it online.
It's a very spartan documentary… sometimes dull and routine, sometimes compelling. You see and hear the doctors, nurses, and patients without the intrusion of a narrator or heavy handed voiceover. You see the waiting, the anxiety, the frustration, and the absurdity of a system where a patient will wait seven hours in the waiting room just to get a Tylenol – “I told him to go to Walgreens,” said the nurse.
Also, check out the filmmaker's website or read reviews of the film.
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Mark Graban
Mark Graban's passion is creating a better, safer, more cost effective healthcare system for patients and better workplaces for all. Mark is a consultant, author, and speaker in the "Lean healthcare" methodology. He is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, as well as The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. His most recent project is an book titled Practicing Lean that benefits the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, where Mark is a board member. Mark is also the VP of Improvement & Innovation Services for the technology company KaiNexus.