|
Rhode Island
Success
Stories: RHODE
ISLAND
|
- Quality
Partners of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island QIO, sponsors and leads
the first Patient Safety Improvement Corps (PSIC) program also sponsored
by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Veterans
Administration (VA). PSIC is a partnership of state
and government agencies and local hospitals that supports identifying
and remediating patient safety hazards in hospitals. The PSIC program
included three training sessions that ran from September 2003 through
May 2004. The conference helped raise awareness among Rhode Island hospital
leaders and personnel, staff from the Department of Health, and other
state stakeholders about the urgent need to understand and remediate
incidents of harm in hospital settings.
- Cedar
Crest Sub-Acute and Rehabilitation Centre in Cranston reduces pressure
ulcer rates in its 145-bed facility over nine months from 11.81%
to 5.0%: Working with Quality Partners of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island QIO, Cedar
Crest developed better ways to target at-risk residents by paying
closer attention to them. Staff worked to ensure that at-risk patients
had mattresses and wheelchairs with special pressure-relieving cushions.
Staff also designed posters hung throughout the unit that used phrases
like, "Don't be a frump, get off your rump," to encouraged residents
to increase mobility. Cedar Crest is expanding its quality improvement
efforts to other units of the nursing home.
- The Cathleen
Naughton Home Health Agency in Providence helps 25% of patients improve
mobility in 2001, compared to 12% previously: Working with Quality
Partners of Rhode Island (QPRI), the Rhode Island QIO, the Naughton
agency implemented exercise regimens for new patients with difficulty
in ambulation and improved monitoring of slower progressing patients
through weekly clinical meetings. The efforts improved care on the
targeted indicator to a rate above the national average. Through
training workshops and ongoing support QPRI helped the Naughton staff
understand and apply a quality improvement system. Process improvement
techniques spread rapidly throughout the agency, including the creation
of a new comprehensive pain management policy.
- Riverview
Healthcare Community in Coventry cuts pain by 46% for short-stay
residents; reduces pain for long-term care patients by more than
a third: Riverview joined with Quality Partners
of Rhode Island, the local QIO, in a pain management project that
nursing services director Karen Morin says produced “dramatic
results.” “Our staff is screening for pain more. So,
they are thinking about it more and they are using medications more
effectively to break through pain,” says Morin, who notes that
RIQP helped Riverview re-evaluate and improve pain assessment procedures
in a way that involves the entire staff. These changes are affecting
not just patient outcomes, but also staff satisfaction.
|
|
