Quality Improvement Commons^™

Predictors Of Birth Center Sustainability In The United States, Melanie Cabezas Phipps

Nursing ETDs

Pregnant women from all racial and socioeconomic communities deserve safe, personalized, and affordable ways to give birth. To meet all three needs, focus is increasing on birth centers, a midwifery model that provides family-centered care before, during, and after normal pregnancy, labor, and birth. However, many U.S. birth centers face significant obstacles to financial sustainability, particularly in rural areas. A better understanding of the factors that contribute to a birth center’s operational success is needed for practitioners and groups interested in establishing or maintaining a birth center, as well as to inform policymakers seeking to improve health care equity, outcomes, …

Building A Culture Committed To Fall Prevention, Mary Uppinghouse, Queena Kim, Marissa Evans

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No abstract provided.

Effects Of Sedation Vacations And Sedation Level Quality Improvement Project, Gisele Bazan, Bo Ewing, Cynthia Grissman, April Marpa, August Montgomery, Tana Overman

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No abstract provided.

Process Improvement For Simethicone Use During Endoscopic Procedures, Airene D. Albutra, Mary Estelle De Vera, Sarah J. Wyrick

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No abstract provided.

Improving Ed Sepsis Bundle Compliance, Jen Selby

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No abstract provided.

Ppe Compliance And Knowledge Among Healthcare Staff, Beatrice Hagert, Nicole Krummel

Nursing DNP Projects

Abstract

Problem: One of the most important steps in infection prevention is the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect patients and staff from infectious agents; yet, research indicates that PPE compliance remains suboptimal in many healthcare institutions.

Purpose: To identify the effect of a multidisciplinary education campaign on PPE compliance and knowledge among healthcare workers (HCWs) on a rehabilitation unit of a large, midwestern teaching hospital.

Methods: This project utilized pre-intervention observational audits and a survey to determine baseline PPE compliance and knowledge on the piloted units. A post-intervention survey was sent to HCW to assess for a …

Improving Quality Of Patient Care By Reducing The Prevalence Of Surgical Site Infections, Gina Dashiell, Luanna Hansen

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No abstract provided.

A Multicenter Mixed-Effects Model For Inference And Prediction Of 72-H Return Visits To The Emergency Department For Adult Patients With Trauma-Related Diagnoses, Ehsan Yaghmaei, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, William Feaster, David Gibbs, Cyril Rakovski

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Objective

Emergency department (ED) return visits within 72 h may be a sign of poor quality of care and entail unnecessary use of healthcare resources. In this study, we compare the performance of two leading statistical and machine learning classification algorithms, and we use the best performing approach to identify novel risk factors of ED return visits.

Methods

We analyzed 3.2 million ED encounters with at least one diagnosis under “injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external causes” and “external causes of morbidity.” These encounters included patients 18 years or older from across 128 emergency room facilities in the …

Start Stop-Bang, Valerie D. Reeve

MSN Capstone Projects

Currently standard of care in the perioperative unit is not conducive when caring for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA is highly prevalent and often undiagnosed. Screening patients with a STOP-Bang questionnaire is quick, effective, and cost efficient. OSA is linked to poor postoperative outcomes. Patients at high risk for OSA often encounter complications such as: additional airway management, respiratory complications, cardiovascular complications, and increased length of stay. Screening creates awareness and identification of patients at risk for postoperative complications.

Mitigating Suicide Risk Post-Discharge From Inpatient Crisis Stabilization: Safety Planning Intervention, Leighia M. Mcghee

Dissertations

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this program evaluation is to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly implemented safety planning intervention (SPI) tool, comparing patient outcomes relating to suicide attempt rates, emergency department (ED) encounter rates, and inpatient rehospitalizations rates pre and post its integration to care in a suburban behavioral health hospital.

Methods: A descriptive cohort design utilizing a retrospective chart review was completed over six months, three months pre, and three months post implementation of the SPI program. A convenience sample of inpatient charts was reviewed to assess the rate of suicide attempts, ED encounters frequencies, and hospitalization rates …

Analysis Of Delays In Processing Times In An Ophthalmology Clinic, Kai Yung Natalie Lui

Dissertations and Theses

Efficiency is an important component of any medical practice. It facilitates quality care, reduction in wait time, patient and staff satisfaction, and decreased cost. The purpose of this study was to identify bottlenecks in the current processing system in the Eye Center at Hershey Penn State Medical Center. Data was obtained about patients arriving at the clinic for ancillary tests such as visual field testing and retinal imaging. Analysis of this data revealed a statistically significant longer average length of visit for patients who received testing in comparison to those who did not. However, due to the small sample size …

End Tidal Carbon Dioxide Monitoring (Capnography) In The Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Madeline Elaine Huff, Kenneth T. Shelton

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Carbon dioxide levels can be monitored throughout the respiratory cycle via capnography. In this way, capnography allows healthcare professionals to follow several respiratory factors in real-time, including respiratory depression, apnea, and hypercapnia. Postoperative patients are subjected to significant harm while receiving sedating medications without appropriate monitoring and intervention. Earlier detection of alterations to ventilation status will better enable providers to more accurately dose medications during procedures, especially in high-risk patient populations.

Methods: Patient selection included post-operative patients in the intensive care unit that were receiving sedation/analgesia, high dose or high frequency opioids, epidural or intrathecal pain management, patients that …

Strategies To Improve Timeliness For Cleaning Inpatient Rooms Following Patient Discharge, Lora Dixon, Mark Parker, Ruth Hanselman, Suneela Nayak, Amy Sparks

Operations Transformation

STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE THE TIME FRAME FOR CLEANING INPATIENT ROOMS BY ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

In an inpatient rehab hospital, it was noted that Environmental Services (EVS) was delayed in cleaning rooms between patient discharges and admissions. This resulted in the frequent use of a “stat clean” order that allows only 50% of the normal cleaning time , forcing patients to wait and impacting patient flow.

A root cause analysis demonstrated lack of communication between the rehab hospital and the contracted cleaning services. A number of counter measures were initiated with the goal that cleaning would be started within 20 minutes of …