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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Development Of Mechanical Ventilator Educational Brochure For Patients/Families, Cathy Palleschi, Wendy Osgood, Mark Parker Sep 2019

Development Of Mechanical Ventilator Educational Brochure For Patients/Families, Cathy Palleschi, Wendy Osgood, Mark Parker

Operational Transformation

Patients on mechanical ventilation often have no memory of events while being ventilated. In addition, families during this time, are often overwhelmed and unable to retain information provided to them by caregivers.

In attempt to address these issues, a team of care providers in an tertiary academic hospital established a goal to create a mechanical educational brochure with the goal to reduce associated anxiety and improve overall understanding of information provided.

As part of a clinical transformation project, a root cause analysis was conducted and a number of countermeasures were initiated. Some of these included a survey to capture feedback …


Implementation Of Trauma Service Guideline For The Use Of Phenobarbital In The Management Of The Non-Icu Trauma Patient At Risk Or Experiencing Severe Alcohol Withdrawal, Joseph Rappold, Julianne Ontengco, Stephen Tyzik, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Amy Sparks Sep 2019

Implementation Of Trauma Service Guideline For The Use Of Phenobarbital In The Management Of The Non-Icu Trauma Patient At Risk Or Experiencing Severe Alcohol Withdrawal, Joseph Rappold, Julianne Ontengco, Stephen Tyzik, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Amy Sparks

Operational Transformation

The trauma service in a large academic tertiary medical center admits a large proportion of patients with the secondary diagnosis of alcohol use disorder. Given the successful use of phenobarbital in the critical care unit for withdrawal prophylaxis and treatment of acute withdrawal, a quality improvement project was established to create and implement guidelines for the non ICU patient.

A root cause analysis demonstrated several issues to include inconsistent clinical decision documentation. As a result, several countermeasures were initiated to address the various issues.

Post implementation of countermeasures, a decrease in the amount of severe alcohol withdrawal as well as …


Reduction Of Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections (Cauti) In A Critical Care Setting, Deborah Jackson, Lindsey Lucas, Shawn Taylor, Jonathan Archibald, Stephen Tyzik, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Amy Sparks Sep 2019

Reduction Of Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections (Cauti) In A Critical Care Setting, Deborah Jackson, Lindsey Lucas, Shawn Taylor, Jonathan Archibald, Stephen Tyzik, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Amy Sparks

Operational Transformation

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common type of healthcare associated infections. Seventy five percent are related to indwelling urinary catheters. These infections come with increased morbidity and mortality risk. A team of intensive care providers at a large academic tertiary medical center initiated a quality improvement project to reduce the number of CAUTIs.

Baseline data established the total number of catheter days and CAUTIs by month. A subsequent root cause analysis was completed and several counter measures were developed to include a KPI implementation to track that all intensive care providers are educated in CAUTI and creation of …


Strategies To Improve Resource Availability For New Graduate Nurses In A Critical Care Setting, Natasha Stankiewicz, Jonathan Archibald, Shawn Taylor, Deborah Jackson, Bonnie Boivin, Mark Parker, Suneela Nayak, Stephen Tyzik, Ruth Hanselman, Amy Sparks Oct 2018

Strategies To Improve Resource Availability For New Graduate Nurses In A Critical Care Setting, Natasha Stankiewicz, Jonathan Archibald, Shawn Taylor, Deborah Jackson, Bonnie Boivin, Mark Parker, Suneela Nayak, Stephen Tyzik, Ruth Hanselman, Amy Sparks

Operational Transformation

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE RESOURCE AVAILABILITY FOR NEW GRADUATE NURSES

Due to changes in the employment arena, health care organizations are hiring new graduate RNs into acute care. At an academic tertiary medical center, new hires typically are assigned into a night shift, which traditionally has less resource availability.

The results of a recent AHRQ hospital survey on patient culture safety demonstrated that new graduates were feeling unsupported and that patient safety could be potentially compromised. A team of caregivers developed several goals to provide increased support, encouragement and education to night shift new hires. Improvement in overall patient care and …


The Development And Implementation Of A Reliable Method For Educating Provider Groups On Stroke Discharge Order Sets, Deborah Gregoire, Shawn Taylor, Suneela Nayak, Mark Parker, Kathryn Cope, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik, Amy Sparks, Brendan Lilley Oct 2018

The Development And Implementation Of A Reliable Method For Educating Provider Groups On Stroke Discharge Order Sets, Deborah Gregoire, Shawn Taylor, Suneela Nayak, Mark Parker, Kathryn Cope, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik, Amy Sparks, Brendan Lilley

Operational Transformation

THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A RELIABLE METHOD FOR EDUCATING PROVIDERS ON STROKE DISCHARGE ORDER SETS

After receiving a comprehensive stroke certification from the Joint Commission, an academic tertiary care medical center created and revised 15 stroke order sets to ensure providers could easily place the correct orders for every stroke patient. Following certification, it was noted that there was inconsistent use of these order sets. This raised concerns that the process to treat a stroke patient may be delayed, creating serious potential risk for the patient.

A goal of this performance improvement plan was to develop and implement a …


Healthstream Orientation Assignment Process Improvements, Mary Jane Krebs, Melissa Gattine, Hannah Pelletier Sep 2018

Healthstream Orientation Assignment Process Improvements, Mary Jane Krebs, Melissa Gattine, Hannah Pelletier

Maine Medical Center

Problem/Impact Statement: The Training and Development Center (TDC) has seen increased use of HealthStream Learning Center (HLC) for new user assignments. In CY 2017 there were 359 new students from 64 departments with 89 different job titles. This volume requires significant resources to manually add orientation assignments, with risk of error in student entry and assignment accuracy.


Patient Fall Prevention, R9 West Cardiovascular, Cathy Palleschi, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik Aug 2017

Patient Fall Prevention, R9 West Cardiovascular, Cathy Palleschi, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik

Maine Medical Center

PATIENT FALL PREVENTION STRATEGIES IN AN ACUTE HOSPITAL

Every year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of patients fall resulting in injury. Injured patients often require prolonged hospital stays and a resultant increase in medical costs.

The purpose of this study was to identify the current state of fall prevention strategies on a hospital inpatient acute care cardiac unit. Through a root cause analysis, some deficiencies were identified and a process improvement plan was implemented.

Several positive outcomes were attained as a result of the countermeasures initiated. Patient falls per month and total waste in dollars saw a decline …