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Patient transfers improve with SafePath nurse

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, March 18, 2008

Problems often arose during the transfer of patients from the post anesthesia care unit (PACU) to the medical-surgical floor at Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City, OK. These problems included patients being moved from the PACU before they were sufficiently recovered and family members not being informed as to where their loved ones were. So Nurse Manager Rob McEver, RN, BSN, created a smoother patient transfer process by developing a new nursing role that he called the "SafePath" nurse.

Mercy Health Center became an ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® recipient in 2005 and the facility has seen positive changes from the new role. According to McEver, the SafePath nurse focuses on admissions and discharges, and makes the PACU transfer to the medical-surgical floor a more efficient process by early identification of patients who need to be transferred to the medical-surgical floor. The nurse also makes sure the floor has the equipment needed for the patient, communicates with the patient's family about the patient's whereabouts, and talks with the patient to let him or her know who will be their nurse on the med-surg floor. 

Since hiring an RN to fill the SafePath nurse role, the time spent on discharges has decreased by around two hours and families feel more informed about their loved ones, says McEver.

Source: Nurse.com 

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