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This project was initiated by David Lyons, Director of Respiratory Therapy at St. Francis Hospital and implemented with the assistance of the performance improvement specialist, who identified an opportunity for improvement in hospital-wide oxygen cylinder safety and regulatory compliance processes…
This journey began when St. Francis Hospital gave fruit cocktail to a patient with a severe allergy to cherries noted in one part of her medical record, but not in any other. The patient knew not to eat this. A true sentinel event was prevented, but the root cause analysis team convened and…
For more than ten years, St. Elizabeth Medical Center has focused on length of stay and resource utilization, and while the facility is mindful of ancillary utilization, there was never a formal process to support or promote it. In 2010, the facility, under the leadership of the director of…
In 2006, Southampton Hospital's department of nursing conducted a needs assessment focusing on the quality of patient outcomes, staff recruitment and retention, and patient safety. Part of the assessment included distribution of AHRQ Hospital Safety Survey to staff. Respondents rated 'Overall…
The average length of stay for patients undergoing single elective total joint replacement surgery at Plainview Hospital was excessive at 5.50 days. Patients were inconsistently attending the total joint replacement preoperative class. Inefficiencies in team communication led to increased LOS and…
Traditionally, primary care physicians maintain chief responsibility for treating their critically ill patients. They often bring in specialists as needed. There are clear drawbacks to this approach. For example, primary care doctors often have little experience treating critically ill patients,…
Olean General Hospital is one of only a few community hospitals in the nation to offer a center of excellence in hyperbaric oxygen services and state-of-the-art wound care therapies and treatments. This is accomplished through a partnership with a company specializing in wound care and hyperbaric…
As part of a larger process redesign focused on Northern Westchester Hospital's inpatient medical and surgical units, this initiative had a specific goal of creating an efficient, effective, and patient-centered support services process that would improve patient satisfaction and provide…
In the winter of 2010, Newark-Wayne Community Hospital initiated its first Comprehensive Unit-Based Safety Program (CUSP) in its emergency department. CUSP, designed to improve patient safety and culture, integrates safety practices into a unit's daily work. It encourages frontline team…
For the past three years, New York Medical College at Westchester Medical Center has been developing handoff best practices, making use of both conventional methods (face-to-face sign-outs where interruptions are minimized and standardized computer sign-out forms), as well as more novel methods…