Nursing Commons^™

Interdepartmental Rounding, Peggy Anderson, Carrie Strick, R3 Med-Surg Unit, Haley Pelletier, Suneela Nayak, Stephen Tyzik, Ruth Hanselman, Maine Medical Center Operational Excellence

Maine Medical Center

STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN DOCTORS AND NURSES IN AN ACUTE CARE HOSPITAL

Effective interdisciplinary communication is imperative for safe patient care in an acute care hospital environment.

A surgical unit used their HCAHPs scores to assess how often patients perceived there was good communication between different doctors and nurses during their hospital stays. The data demonstrated that this occurred 22% less often than the national average.

As a result of a root cause analysis, a number of countermeasures were initiated with the goal of achieving scores greater than the national average. Post KPI inception in the second quarter of …

Strategies To Improve Interdisciplinary Communication In An Acute Care Inpatient Pediatric Unit, Sarah Thompson, Haley Pelletier, Barbara Bush Children's Hospital-Inpatient, Maine Medical Center, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik

Maine Medical Center

Interdisciplinary patient rounding has been shown to improve patient and family satisfaction as well as reduce patient length of stay and readmission rates. In an acute care inpatient pediatric unit, baseline metrics demonstrated that 100% of the time, nursing was not included in these rounds thus resulting in sub optimal communication.

The goal of this performance improvement project was to attain increased nursing participation. Data collection demonstrated several reasons for lack of participation and corrective actions were instituted. After undertaking this KPI goal and utilizing operational excellence, 95% of the time, nurses were called to morning rounds with the medical …

Communication Of Medication Side Effects In An Acute Care Hospital, Deb Bachand, Rachel Caiola, R6 Neurology Med-Surg Unit, Haley Pelletier, Brendan Lilley, Suneela Nayak, Ruth Hanselman, Stephen Tyzik

Maine Medical Center

COMMUNICATION OF MEDICATION SIDE EFFECTS IN AN ACUTE CARE HOSPITAL

Effective patient education of prescribed medication side effects improves patient safety and reduces overall risk. On an acute care hospital unit, nursing staff felt previous attempts at this education had been ineffective as demonstrated by their HCAHPs scores for communication about medications.

A root cause analysis demonstrated some flaws and several countermeasures were instituted. The goal of this KPI project was to attain a higher than national average for the specific HCAHPs score.

Post KPI inception, the unit’s HCAHPs data showed steady improvement. Within one month, the goal of an …