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Web site spotlight: Outsourcing discharge follow-up calls keeps nurses at the bedside

Nurse Manager Weekly, October 19, 2009

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The head wound patient in the emergency department's bay three just threw up and a patient discharged over the weekend needs a follow up call regarding how he is recovering from his complicated procedure. Which patient is the priority? This dilemma is all too common for nurses and healthcare organizations that are striving to manage quality and patient satisfaction.

Study after study has shown that patients who have more interaction with nurses express higher satisfaction rates and increasing nursing time at the bedside has been shown to improve overall quality scores. The challenge, of course, is to reduce the administrative burden nurses carry so they can spend more time at the bedside. Studies conducted several years ago at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angles indicated that, on average, nurses spend as little as 25% to 30% of their time at the bedside, though many hospitals are successfully working to increase that percentage.

Given the positive effect nurses have on patient satisfaction and quality, reducing the administrative burdens of frontline nurses should be one of the top priorities for nursing managers.

Editor’s note: To read the rest of this article, visit “Outsourcing discharge follow-up calls keeps nurses at the bedside ” found in the Reading Room  at www.StrategiesForNurseManagers.com.

Do you need continuing education (CE) credits? Check out this month’s CE article to learn about flu pandemic preparation or visit our archives and view a compilation of CE articles (marked with an asterisk).

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