Patient-Sensitive Outcomes
WE ARE PROTECTORS
Measuring what matters most: keeping our patients free from harm
As we approach the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, we embrace all that she as a pioneer embodied — including her compassion to elevate care standards, her foresight to educate nurses, and perhaps most importantly, her visionary commitment to lead data-driven improvements in patient outcomes. When a person entrusts us with their care, we commit to always keep them safe. To uphold this commitment, we deliver evidence-based care and focus our attention and energy on continuously improving patient-sensitive measures. We do so Because We Care and our patients deserve no less. This past year brought laser focus to multiple patient safety measures and teams shared best practices and successes to improve our performance. Below, we review our successes and continued challenges as we relied on our skills, competencies and knowledge to safeguard and serve our patients in 2019.
A NURSE’S PERSPECTIVE: Corey Balmer, RN,
Charge Nurse, Step Down, Sentara Albemarle Medical Center
Corey huddles daily with nurses to evaluate the necessity of each patient’s central line or catheter and review safety protocols and procedures in their insertion, care and removal.
“When I leave this world, I want it to be a better place. That’s what motivated me to become a nurse. What I do isn’t about what is convenient. It’s about being here for the patients and protecting their safety.”
SENTARA HEALTHCARE CAUTI RATE — Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection Rate
When urinary catheters are necessary, we ask every day if it’s in the patient’s best interest to continue using one. Our ongoing consideration of a catheter’s necessity and strict bundle compliance including careful maintenance have lowered the number of catheter-associated urinary tract infections in our patients.
SENTARA HEALTHCARE CLABSI RATE — Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infection Rate
Our nurses take every precaution to prevent Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections, questioning daily the need for a line, carefully following safety protocols, and providing meticulous care to minimize patient risk. We are encouraged by our progress in reducing the number of these infections. We will need to continue our focus on this measure for 2020 to continue our progress in keeping our patients safe.
A NURSE’S PERSPECTIVE: Vanessa Johns, BSN, RN, CWCN
Team Leader, Inpatient Wound Care, Sentara Obici Hospital and Co-Chair of the system-wide HAPI Forum
The forum meets monthly to review appropriate HAPI prevention, share successful techniques and brainstorm nurse education.
“We ask our bedside nurses to join our HAPI Forum. They know best. Their ideas for improvements prevent harm to patients. When patients leave us, we want them to enjoy life – go on a long family car trip, do something fun—and not spend time and money on follow-up care.”
SENTARA HEALTHCARE HAPI RATE — Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injury Rate
Pressure injury prevention is an important area of patient safety and we have seen growing challenges in preventing Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injuries. Our diligence in communicating their risks and offering preventions helped us decrease the number of patients developing pressure injuries while in our care. This is one measure where we are seeing an upward trend in 2020. Please remain diligent in your efforts to decrease pressure injuries.
SENTARA HEALTHCARE FALLS WITH INJURY RATE — Falls with Injury
We are constantly eliminating hazards that could play a part in a patient’s fall. Our attention to details and our use of appropriate resources have resulted in a lower number of avoidable falls with injury. Thank you for your continued diligence to keep our patients safe.
A NURSE’S PERSPECTIVE: Florence Cain, BSN, RN, CCM,
Case Manager, Optima Health
Florence works with Optima team members and Sentara nurses throughout our health system, identifying resources to boost members’ health.
“A member wrote me a letter saying I’m an angel without wings. I can help because of my knowledge from different jobs I had at Sentara and because we have a whole team focused on improving people’s health. We listen, stay empathetic, gather information and then do whatever is needed together.”
2020 Areas of Focus
- Improve Nursing Retention
- Exceed Patient-Sensitive Measures Goals
- Exceed Customer Experience Goals
An Extra Round of Applause
We congratulate our nurses for their constant attention to our patients and their families. In 2019, our staff members in these areas earned improved or exceptional customer experience scores:
- Sentara Healthcare Hospitals
- Sentara Healthcare Senior Services
- Sentara Healthcare Home Health
- Sentara Healthcare Hospice
- Sentara Medical Group
- Optima Health