Case Studies

The Problem--Emergency departments were at capacity or beyond it, extending wait times. This resulted in a dissatisfied patient population and a patient safety issue, as many patients left before receiving treatment. One literature review study showed that 46 percent of ED patients who left without…
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Recognizing the need to integrate physicians and other providers into its quality improvement program, Memorial Health System created an innovative training curriculum designed to educate physicians on Lean/Six Sigma tools and techniques while generating feedback and project suggestions. The course…
A Safe Patient Handling program (SPH) was initiated in 2006. A SPH vendor was chosen based upon employee product trial, evidence-based research with documented success rates, clinical support and the guarantee of a ROI of 60 percent reduction in employee injuries. A vendor-driven house-wide…
The goal was to decrease the number of patients negatively affected by experiencing a post-operative aspiration pneumonia which increases length of stay and leads to poorer overall patient outcomes. After identifying key stakeholders, the team developed education plans for staff, patients and…
An ED case management program was developed to implement tactics focused on reducing ED avoidable ambulance transfers, ED visits and hospitalizations for patients who used the ED more than 10 visits per year. For a defined group of high-frequency patients, interventions by a nurse-led case…
The hospital carried out a multidisciplinary team-based approach to improving the safety and appropriateness of packed red blood cells transfusion. Evidence based guidelines for appropriate usage of blood products and a standardized order set were developed. Compliance with the guidelines was…
This quality project evaluated the impact of translating evidence based CLABSI practice from the adult population to the pediatric population to eliminate pediatric CLABSI. The hospital joined a national collaborative in December 2009 that focused on developing and sustaining a program that…
Children with cystic fibrosis have better lung function and survival rates if their body mass index is at or above the 50th percentile. A long-term quality improvement effort has led to superior nutrition at the CF Center. The hospital joined an improvement collaborative, funded by the Cystic…
Sharing best practices and facilitating peer-to-peer learning were core elements of the AHA/HRET Hospital Engagement Network. This video series showcases the successes and lessons learned from high-performing hospitals in the AHA/HRET HEN. Each video features multiple voices within each…