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Fresh Perspective Spurs Workflow Innovation
Listening to the "voice of the customer" is the key to getting results.
- Timely delivery of medication is critical for patient care and eases anxiety and stress among staff.
- Shadowing hospital nurses to better understand their wants and needs.
How to Boost Team Morale
Improved workflow and coordination help a short-staffed telemetry team reduce overtime and schedule an RN to cover them while on break, boosting staff morale.
- Overtime costs can put a dent in department budgets and overworked employees are at greater risk for workplace injuries.
- Scheduling a relief RN to cover staff members on break, reducing the frequency of missed breaks
Kid Food: Serve It
Pediatrics team suggested kid-friendly food like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and created restaurant style menus with imagery of zoo animals.
- Kids need to eat, and wasted food is wasting money.
- Offering kid-friendly food items
Follow-Up Orders Save Lives
Adhering to important guidelines to keep patients safe and healthy after surgery was high after this team educated staff and coordinated with pharmacists and other teams to ensure compliance.
- VTE prophylaxis helps prevent post-operative complications.
- Coordinating with pharmacies to keep with SCIP guidelines
Cut Transport Turnaround Times
This Transport team got patients discharged or to their next destination quicker when they began keeping gurneys where they were needed, cleaned and ready for the next patient.
- Reducing transport times improves inpatient care, service and efficiency.
- Placing equipment where needed
Always Wash Your Hands
The pediatrics team increased hand-washing rates after it put up posters of cute kids as hand-washing reminders and made other common-sense improvements.
- Hand-washing is a simple way to combat inpatient infection.
- Posting reminders to regularly wash hands
The Key to Great Service: Call and Response
Service scores shot up when this oncology team paired a nurse with a buddy to help with patient response.
- Responding to a patient’s needs is central to their care.
- Pairing with a buddy can shorten patient response times
Whiteboard Helps Rehab Communications
Information-sharing improved among different groups of the care giving staff.
- Nurses, physical therapists, patients and family members all have the same information about the case.
- Using a whiteboard in patient rooms to record physical therapy sessions
Easing the Pain for Babies, Families
NICU team improves service scores and provides better service by educating new parents about infant pain management.
- Caregivers want not only to manage babies’ pain but also alleviate parents’ anxieties and help them know what to expect.
- Use a consistent script to discuss pain management during the admission process and keep parents informed throughout the baby’s stay in the NICU
No One Walks Alone
From an average of 16 patient falls per month, the number went down to three a month.
- Both patients and morale were suffering at the San Diego Medical Center telemetry unit, which had twice as many patient falls as the next-worst unit.
- Treat every patient as a fall risk and ensure each patient is accompanied — especially to and from the bathroom, when most falls occur
Preventing Patient Falls
Team reduced patient falls by 40 percent in one year.
- Keeping patients safe is a top priority.
- Daily huddles and debriefs
Simple, Surprising Savings
Team saves thousands simply by reducing supply waste.
- Keeping costs down helps keep Kaiser Permanente affordable for members and patients.
- Mobilizing all UBT members to use stickers to indicate which supplies they use—and which they could live without