HCPro.com: Quality Improvement Report

This informative newsletter is a 12-page monthly resource that provides you with the hands-on advice, tools (including data collection forms), and best practices that you need to ensure your hospital scores high on its quality measures and receives all of the Medicare reimbursement it deserves!

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July 2008 (Volume 3, Issue 7)	view entire issue

Express care improves patient flow in the ED
Sun Health Del E. Webb Hospital in Sun City West, AZ, was in trouble. From 2002 to 2007, the ED had seen an 87% growth in volume. Patient satisfaction was low, employee turnover was high, and most patients waited eight hours to be seen. "Our patients hated us. They told us loud and clear on Press Ganey," says Noreen Vanca, RN, BSN, MS, administrative director of emergency services at Sun Health. Like many other ED managers, Vanca knew something had to be done. In 2006, she began implementing the concept of fast-tracking patients with minor and nonacute injuries.

Rounding cuts number of call lights by 3,000
Six months after the telemetry unit at Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital in Louisville, KY, implemented hourly nurse rounding, the number of patient falls decreased, patient satisfaction increased, and call light use dropped by more than 3,000 per month. "The managers round on all of the patients every day," says Amy Robinson, RN, a nurse manager at the 200-bed facility. "One of the questions we ask the patient is, 'Does someone always come in as soon as you use your call light?' And we often hear, 'Oh, I never use my call light because they're in here all the time.' "

Protect apnea patients from perioperative risk
For some reason, clinicians suffer from the misapprehension that patients recovering after surgery need to lie flat on their backs-a potentially dangerous position for those who have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Della Lin, MD, an anesthesiologist who has served on the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Patient Safety Committee and executive director of continuing medical education at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, says she wants to disabuse her peers of that notion.

How to set up an effective rapid response system
Small hospitals struggling to implement a rapid response system may want to take a cue from East Texas Medical Center in Athens, a 28-bed facility that saw its calls for code blues-as well as its mortality rates-drop after it instituted an emergency team. The medical center's effort began in 2006, when leadership formed a team to address the issues by looking at baseline data, Melissa Lehman, RN, MSN, CPHQ, said during HCPro's May 14 audioconference, "Rapid Response Systems for Small Hospitals: Tips and Tools to Overcome a Lack of Resources." The team included leaders from the floor, the ED, and the ICU.

Other recently-published articles from Quality Improvement Report:

Diabetic patients with many comorbidities need higher levels of insulin

Antibiotic monitoring improves quality, reduces cost

SCIP expert: OR environment can lead to infections

Timeouts need to include the entire surgical team

Q&A with Peter Angood on Universal Protocol

Assess all patients to prevent pressure ulcers

Hourly rounding, huddles help prevent patient falls

http://www.hcpro.com/admin/content_manager/index.cfm

Joint Commission cracks down on disruptive clinicians

Ask simple questions to manage your data

Premier’s P4P program raises quality for its hospitals

Joint Commission cracks down on disruptive clinicians

New Patient Safety Goals focus on infection prevention

How to set up an effective rapid response system

Protect apnea patients from perioperative risk

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