St. Charles Hospital drives efficient care coordination
Successful care coordination requires alignment and input of various clinical and nonclinical perspectives. Efficiently collecting and acting on this essential input is often a struggle for healthcare providers. In 2017, St. Charles Hospital, part of Catholic Health Services of Long Island, partnered with Care Logistics to become a “zero harm” hospital and create a better patient experience by more efficiently managing patient care coordination. To accomplish this, a weekly leadership rounding program was established.
Leadership rounding teams act as an interface for staff to share with senior leaders any potential barriers in process efficiency for staff, patients and visitors. Rounding involves the entire facility, including clinical and non-clinical departments, to ensure consistency of processes, enhance communication and sustain a shared vision for the future. During leadership rounding, department heads and executive leadership staff review key patient safety initiatives with frontline staff. Specifically, the hospital worked on key performance metrics, which were determined by St. Charles Hospital, to reduce overall length of stay, increase the number of occurrences reported by staff, identify any barriers brought forward by staff and increase patient safety (particularly fall reduction). In addition, staff in each department identify a measureable goal, specific to their department, and utilize the “Plan-Do-Study-Act” process to promote positive change. The leadership team reviews the progress on these goals with staff each week, providing guidance where needed.
Significant and positive improvement has been made on these initiatives since the implementation of leadership rounding. St. Charles achieved a clear decrease in length of stay since the program’s inception. The fourth quarter of 2017 LOS was 4.70 days, and by the third quarter of 2018 it decreased to 4.25 days. Falls decreased as well, with units even achieving zero falls during some months. Additionally, there was a marked reduction in falls on the inpatient rehabilitation unit. The team also reduced “Decision to Admit to ED Departure” time from 272 minutes in December 2017 to 214 minutes in September 2018.
For more information, contact Stephanie Giraulo, RD, CDN, MBA, CPPS, CPXP, director, nutritional services and rounding leader, at (631) 474-6120 or stephanie.giraulo@chsli.org.
