MUSC Excellence at the Medical Center
Praising 8W staff,
assessing patient care
Service: Serving the public with
compassion, respect and excellence Women’s, children’s patient satisfaction team thanks 8West staff
The Women’s and Children’s Patient Satisfaction team, along with the 7B Children’s Hospital staff, greeted 8West staff with a surprise ice cream social Oct. 11. The 8West staff were thanked for stepping up and doing a great job with the children and 7B staff while the Bone Marrow Transplant rooms on 7B were under construction.
“I have always thought that one of the things that set MUSC apart from other organizations was the teamwork and feeling of ‘family’ our units have. I am very thankful to the group on 8West for helping the children out when we got ourselves in a mess with construction problems on 7B. I have only heard great stories from the staff and families who worked with the 8 West staff. I think this experience has been good for everyone. They have really made a difference,” said John Sanders, administrator of the Children’s Hospital.
Strive for 5! (Women’s and Children’s Patient Satisfaction Team)
Did you know that every family discharged from the Children’s Hospital, Children’s Emergency Department, and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit/ Nurseries receives a patient care survey*?
A primary goal of MUSC Children’s Hospital and Perinatal Services is to improve the level of satisfaction patients and their families have with the care they receive at MUSC.
To bring awareness to the goal, the Women’s and Children’s Patient Satisfaction Team began the “Strive for 5” campaign with specially designed badge holders for staff in their area.
The purpose of the badge holder campaign is to spark curiosity among patients and families to ask, “What is Strive for 5?” This gives staff an opportunity to discuss with patients and families MUSC's goal to provide very good care (5) with the hope that staff are able to exceed their expectations. Also, this gives staff a chance to let the patient know that by returning the survey, they help staff understand what they do well and areas where improvement is still needed. The patient care survey is mailed to the patient about two weeks after discharge and asks patients to rate their care and care providers using a 1 to 5 scale. A rating of 1 equals very poor and a rating of 5 represents very good (a 5 rating doesn’t mean perfect, but it does mean very good). MUSC is striving for 5 in every category.
*70 percent of patients are surveyed on 5E and 5W
Quality: Providing quality patient care in a safe environment
Door-to-Balloon time initiative at MUSC
Every year, nearly 400,000 patients are admitted to U.S. hospitals with S-T elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). MUSC offers these patients emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in order to restore blood flow to the ailing heart.
In November 2006, Eric Powers, M.D., medical director of the Heart & Vascular Service Line, and Gary Headden, M.D., along with the Emergency Department and the catheterization (cath) lab teams, implemented MUSC’s ‘Door-to-Balloon (D2B) Time Initiative’ in order to streamline the flow of STEMI patients through the continuum of care, from first contact with EMS personnel in the field to balloon dilation and stenting of obstructed coronary vessels in the Cath Lab.
The key elements of the D2B Time Initiative include 1) a pre-hospital Electro Cardio Gram (ECG) faxed by Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel to MUSC while en route, 2) a “STEMI Alert” page, activated by the emergency department (ED) physician, issued to the cardiology attending and fellow, and the Cath Lab staff on call immediately on arrival, or if the ECG has been faxed by EMS before the patient arrives at MUSC, 3) designation of physician and nurse champions in the ED and cath lab, and 4) prompt and detailed feedback to all involved in the patient’s care.
The
coordinated efforts by EMS, ED and cath lab have been fruitful. The
average D2B time in the third quarter was 61 minutes, 29 minutes
quicker than the national recommendation of 90 minutes and 33 minutes
below MUSC’s average D2B time in 2006 third quarter. All of
MUSC's STEMI patients received PCI within the nationally
recommended 90 minutes in quarter three, compared to 67 percent in 2006
third quarter. “The success of this initiative has been recognized at the national level but belongs to the ED, Cath lab and EMS staff as well as the physician and nurse champions who are confident enough to sustain this achievement,” said Natalia Corica, M.D., Quality and Outcomes manager for the Heart & Vascular Service Line. “This is a great example of multiple groups in the Heart & Vascular Service Line coming together to provide a superb service to our patients,” Powers said.
Powers and Corica have been invited by the American College of Cardiology D2B Alliance to present MUSC’s process and results at the 2007 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida on Nov. 5. The D2B Alliance is an international network of more than 900 U.S. and 15 foreign hospitals.
Friday, Nov. 16, 2007
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