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!

To view the entire newsletter issue, click the “View Entire Issue” link below

June 2008 (Volume 3, Issue 6)	view entire issue

How to comply with critical test result reporting requirements
Keep your lists of critical tests and critical results and values short and minimize the number of handoffs between the testing area and the licensed practitioner if you want to pass muster during survey time, says Gayla Jackson, RN, BSN, a nurse manager at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA, and author of Critical Test Results Troubleshooter: Practical Strategies and Tools for JCAHO Compliance.

Baldrige award winners share experiences
Engaged employees, happy patients, useful technology, and the right leadership philosophy are key to becoming a nationally recognized hospital, according to leaders at two Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award-winning facilities. Since 1999, the Baldrige award recipients have included healthcare organizations that have achieved excellence in performance. Only one or two healthcare organizations are honored each year. San Diego-based Sharp Healthcare is a 2007 recipient of the award.

Study: Blacks and Hispanics receive less pain meds in ED
Blacks and Hispanics who go to hospital emergency departments in pain are significantly less likely than whites to get pain-relieving opioid drugs, according to a new study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Assess all patients to prevent pressure ulcers
Heightened awareness, new beds that provide pressure relief, and skin assessments on every patient entering the facility helped Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA, reduce its pressure ulcer rate from 20% to 0.8%. The push to improve the rate for bedsores started in the mid-1990s, when one of the directors came to the hospital and said, "We can do better than this," says Jan Fitzgerald, MS, RN, director of quality and medical management for the division of healthcare quality at Baystate.

Prevent your ER from becoming a hotbed of infections
Your hospital's ER is full of opportunities for infectious-disease transmission. In no other area of the hospital are you more likely to find an active tuberculosis (TB) patient, a patient with influenza, and an otherwise healthy patient with a sprained ankle sitting next to each other in the waiting room. Infection control (IC) challenges in the ER are further compounded by the issue of overcrowding. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the patient population of Baton Rouge (LA) General Hospital's ER swelled, as displaced New Orleans residents, who were forced to leave their primary care physicians behind, sought medical attention, says Connie DeLeo, the hospital's IC coordinator.

Hourly rounding boosts satisfaction, cuts patient falls
Two months after Kernan Hospital in Baltimore implemented hourly rounding in its orthopedics and rehabilitation center, patient satisfaction scores rose from the 1% mark to the 99th percentile in one unit, the fall rate dropped from 4.03 to zero, and the number of complaints went from seven to none. "It was unbelievable," says Valerie Summerlin, RN, MSN, CNAA, vice president of patient care services at the facility. "It took a while, but it really worked out well."

Other recently-published articles from Quality Improvement Report:

Facilities making progress on infection control?related Patient Safety Goal

Be prepared for early warning system goal

Pandemic influenza risk remains high for hospitals

Gaining stakeholder support for SBAR technique

National Patient Safety Goals: The PI connection

WalkRounds involve senior leaders with frontline staff

Use FMEA to examine the causes of heparin overdoses

Three keys to readying your anticoagulant program

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

ABOUT HCPRO

PRESS

CAREERS @ HCPRO

ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES

ONLINE STORE

200 HOODS LANE

P.O. BOX 1168

MARBLEHEAD, MA 01945, USA

PHONE: 800/650-6787

FAX: 781/639-7857

Copyright Statement	Privacy Policy

*MAGNET™, MAGNET RECOGNITION PROGRAM®, and ANCC MAGNET RECOGNITION® are trademarks of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The products and services of HCPro, Inc. and The Greeley Company are neither sponsored nor endorsed by the ANCC