| Clinical Quality Measures |
| Preventing Pressure Ulcers |
| Harborview Medical Center:
A Case Study in the Prevention of Hospital Acquired Pressure Ulcers
Harborview Medical Center is being recognized for its innovative efforts to prevent and intervene to reduce hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU). HAPU occur in 3% to 12% of hospitalized patients. Patient suffering and excess of care associated with HAPU have fueled national and local initiatives to address prevention.
Read the full article, in the Summer 2009 Patient Safety Advance. |
| NAC input, simplified processes key to pressure ulcer prevention
Regency at Puyallup, WA Rehabilitation Center significantly reduced their high-risk pressure ulcer rates: from an average of 18.1 in 2003-2005 down to 5.2 for the second quarter of 2006. How did they achieve such a substantial change? The Regency team approached this challenge from several angles, trying one method at a time and working out the kinks before instituting house-wide changes.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Winter 2007 Nursing Home Advance. |
| Avoiding Re-Hospitalizations |
| Yakima, WA agency covers all the bases in its efforts to reduce re-hospitalizations
Concerned over their re-hospitalization rate—which had been climbing for several years—a team at Yakima’s Memorial Home Care Services decided enough was enough. They needed to figure out a way to reverse this trend.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Spring 2007 Home Health Advance. |
| Impacting Vaccination Rates |
| Doing it right:
Samaritan Healthcare dramatically improves its PPV rate
How did a 50-bed, rural hospital in Moses Lake, WA go from having a 2.9% pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) rate in Q4 of 2004 to a 79% rate in Q4 2006? “By firmly believing that the staff wants to do it the right way,” says Gwen Cox, Director, Quality Improvement at Samaritan Healthcare.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Winter 2007 Hospital Advance. |
| Managing Pain |
| The fifth vital sign:
Transforming the way one home manages pain
The staff at Seattle's Columbia Lutheran Home knew they needed to make some changes. Quality measure comparisons, chart reviews, and the State’s quarterly visits confirmed it—the existing systems just weren’t good enough to successfully manage residents’ pain. But how could the staff create such a significant transformation, and where would they start?
Read the full article, excerpted from the Summer 2006 Nursing Home Advance. |
| Caring for Surgical Wounds |
| Providence earns award for improvements in wound care
The Providence Hospice & Home Care of Snohomish County, WA (PHHC) recently won a Washington Award of Excellence in Healthcare Quality for their improvements in wound care. After 18 months of focused effort, PHHC is now routinely above national benchmarks for surgical wound clinical measures and has decreased the average number of home care visits for each wound patient by about 16%.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Fall 2006 Home Health Advance. |
| Electronic Medical Record Systems |
| Using EMRs to Improve Care |
| Idaho clinics working to ensure that preventive services truly are routine
It’s no secret that preventive services are important but easily overlooked. A team at Terry Reilly Health Services (TRHS), a group of community health clinics located in southwestern Idaho, has begun tackling this problem by figuring out ways to make preventive services happen routinely—even when the patient or provider hasn’t thought to address the issue during a particular visit. Read the story, published February 2010.
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| Electronic health records used to improve patient care
One of the key reasons to implement electronic health records (EHRs) is to improve patient care. Sound Family Medicine (SFM) of Puyallup, Washington recently used their EHRs to do just that and received recognition for their efforts from GE Healthcare. In January, SFM was presented The Excellence Award in Quality Improvement for 2005 for using GE’s Centricity Digital Health Record System to improve diastolic blood pressure control in hypertensive patients.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Spring 2006 Physician Office Advance. |
| Implementing EMRs and e-prescribing systems |
| Strong commitment and solid prep work put PHMG on the fast track to EHRs
The management team at Primary Health Medical Group (PHMG), a multi-specialty medical group with 13 clinics in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, decided to make the transition to electronic health records (EHRs) a priority for 2007. Before the year was out, they had identified a core team, chosen a vendor, trained staff, and successfully launched the EHR system in all 13 clinics.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Winter 2007 Physician Office Advance. Registry use prompts this practice to investigate EMRs
When his team from Vancouver’s Family Wellness Center participated in the 2004-2005 Washington State Collaborative, Dr. Tom Dyehouse came away with some insights that have dramatically affected the practice. "In the Collaborative, they said that the way the healthcare system is set up makes it hard to deliver proper care. And I realized they’re right," Dyehouse explained.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Summer 2006 Physician Office Advance. Electronic medical records generate excitement in Kingston, WA
When Donald Stevens, MD, was considering going into private practice, he quickly realized that in order to be financially viable, solo practitioners must find efficiencies in data management. “I compared the costs of paper against EMRs [electronic medical records] and realized that electronic was the way to go,” he explained. “I estimated that it would take about a year for the EMR to pay for itself. And it did.”
Read the full article, excerpted from the Winter 2005 Physician Office Advance. Early success for Idaho e-prescribing pilot project
In July 2006, the Idaho Physicians Network (which represents about 2,100 doctors across the state) and Primary Health, Inc. (a health insurance company based in Boise) embarked on a pilot program which introduced e-prescribing to a handful of its member providers.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Fall 2006 Physician Office Advance. |
| Disparities in Care |
| Forming a Connection with Patients |
| Building trust and appreciation are at the heart of effective, cross-cultural healthcare
How can busy physicians begin to understand their patients’ diverse cultures—and the way those cultures impact beliefs and behaviors regarding healthcare? Gina Landicho-Wicks, MD of Mary’s Family Medicine in Redmond, WA has a straightforward solution: “Just ask.”
Read the full article, excerpted from the Winter 2006 Physician Office Advance. |
| Management Techniques |
| Reducing NAC Turnover |
| Scheduling changes created a ripple effect at Hillcrest Manor
Say there was one technique that was proven to do all of the following: - Decrease staff turnover
- Reduce staff absenteeism
- Increase resident and family satisfaction
- Improve clincial outcomes
If such a technique existed, and didn’t cost a dime to implement, would you do it?
Read the full article, excerpted from the Fall 2006 Nursing Home Advance. |
| Decreasing Response Time |
| Equipment handling dramatically streamlined by ‘Operation Clean Sweep’
Not long ago, a resident at Martha & Mary Health Services in Poulsbo, WA might have had to wait 25 minutes while staff hunted for an appropriate wheelchair. Now, the average wait time is just five minutes—thanks to ‘Operation Clean Sweep.’
Read the full article, excerpted from the Summer 2007 Nursing Home Advance. |
| Identifying and Sustaining Change |
| Focused attention fuels quality improvement efforts “I feel pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Joan Warren, RN, Performance Improvement Coordinator at Olympic Medical Home Health, said about her agency’s quality measures. She and the rest of the staff of the Port Angeles, WA-based agency have ample reason to be proud—they are above national benchmarks on nearly every measure reported at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Home Health Compare website, and are continuing to make steady improvements beyond those levels.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Summer 2006 Home Health Advance. |
| Training Staff Effectively |
| Plan ahead to make in-services more powerful
When your nursing home plans its next in-service, follow the lead of Regency at Puyallup, WA Rehabilitation Center—which took the time to answer the following questions—to fine-tune your efforts and maximize the results.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Winter 2007 Nursing Home Advance. |
| Communication Methods |
| SBAR Technique |
| Improving Physician-Nurse Communication and Teamwork Using SBAR
Leadership at Puget Sound Healthcare, a nursing home in Olympia, WA, identified physician-nurse communication and teamwork as an important focus for their quality improvement efforts. Qualis Health facilitated a leadership session on how structured communication and flattened hierarchy can improve communication effectiveness.
Read the full article, excerpted from the Winter 2010 Patient Safety Advance. |
