Can Technology Assist You in Meeting Your Patient Safety Goals?

Today’s healthcare delivery system is complex and multi-dimensional with many competing demands, regulatory requirements and caregiver challenges. Every day, healthcare leaders strive to achieve positive patient outcomes, to enhance the patient and family experience and to do so while controlling costs and optimizing caregiver efficiency and satisfaction. In doing so, healthcare leaders and their teams are held to clinical and financial standards of practice and must publicly report their performance against those standards. All efforts are to assure that care is safe and effective and that true value is derived from the services delivered.

Value Based Healthcare

The demand for value based healthcare has never been greater. Delivering evidence based care that is based on quality and not quantity and on value not volume is a necessity in order to meet the escalating needs of patients and populations as well as to avoid the financial penalties incurred when value is not achieved. In order to demonstrate and document value, healthcare teams must measure what matters and share their results with transparency.

Measure, Measure, Measure

It is not enough for healthcare teams to measure results. More than that, the measures must be meaningful and tracked over time. Continuous quality improvement can only be achieved when benchmarks are defined and when performance is monitored and managed in a sustainable way. Many of the measures that matter are defined by leading national organizations and accrediting bodies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and The Joint Commission. Healthcare teams are monitoring performance around specific far-reaching diseases such as

● Diabetes Mellitus
● Hypertension
● Heart Failure
● Coronary Artery Disease

as well as around prevention and screening goals such as influenza and pneumonia vaccination and breast and colorectal screening. Measuring performance using these and other measures informs most population health efforts underway across the country in efforts to implement the Affordable Care Act and to realize the financial incentives achieved when the focus is on health and value and not on illness and volume.

The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals

To assist in all of the efforts mentioned above and to provide guidance to healthcare teams as they strive to deliver evidence based and cost effective care, The Joint Commission has set forth national patient safety goals to address high risk, high volume and preventable adverse events. The 2016 National Patient Safety Goals are to

• Identify patients correctly
• Improve staff communication
• Use medicines safely
• Use alarms safely
• Prevent infection
• Identify patient safety risks
• Prevent mistakes in surgery

Using Technology to Achieve the National Patient Safety Goals

Despite individual providers’ and teams’ best and most sincere efforts to do no harm, unfortunately, errors and mistakes in healthcare delivery still occur at alarming rates. This is not a new revelation to those at the frontlines of patient care. New measures, new monitoring techniques, new quality improvement frameworks, new team accountabilities and new technologies have all been brought forward to address the patient safety needs of those that we serve. In particular, new technology is introduced every day in order to enable best practices around each of the national patient safety goals mentioned above. Hand hygiene solutions help to prevent infection. Phone and texting technology help to improve communication among team members. Medication dispensing technology and medication reconciliation tools help to assure that medicines are used safely.

In the operating room, efforts focus on team communication and pausing before beginning, assuring and marking the correct site of surgery and adherence to surgical checklists and defined evidence based pathways for all surgical patients. 3si is a technology that facilitates safe care in the OR and that addresses these surgical safety mandates in an easy to use and intuitive manner. Adoption of the 3si Hub system’s multi-user voice command technology has yielded standardized workflow, enhanced teamwork and communication and improved documentation in the OR. Surgical teams and patients benefit from the results.

For more information about the 3si Hub to assist you in improving surgical safety,

please contact Tim.caver@cliniflowtech.com

Melissa Fitzpatrick - Tips for Staying Healthy and Out of the Hospital

Melissa Fitzpatrick is a dedicated nurse leader who has always tried to enhance patient care delivery and nursing satisfaction and excellence in all of her roles. She received her Associate’s degree in Nursing from Gwynedd Mercy College in 1977 and her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the same institution two years later. Melissa graduated Cum Laude with her Master’s degree in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984 and immediately assumed roles of increasing complexity and responsibility from Nurse Manager to Clinical Nurse Specialist in Philadelphia. Her career took her to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and then to Duke University Medical Center before leading industry initiatives at SAS Institute and at Hill-Rom. She is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Fitzpatrick and Associates, a healthcare consulting firm based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

In all of her roles, Melissa has used her knowledge and resources to educate patients, families and communities so that they can enhance their health and prevent illness and injury.  Keeping patients out of the hospital has become an important goal for our healthcare delivery systems and is essential to managing chronicity and decreasing the cost of healthcare delivery which has skyrocketed over the years.

Here are some tips that will keep you healthy.

Preventive health care and wellness are becoming more of a focus as we try to avert illness and injury. Assuring that our neighbors have vaccinations, screening mammography and colonoscopy and regular dental and physical check-ups is essential to elevating the health of our nation.   Managing chronic illness, medications, nutrition and exercise are not new thoughts but certainly more important than ever.  The epidemic of morbid obesity in the US is having an alarming negative impact across all age groups and increasing the risk of such diseases as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.  It is essential that we start education at the earliest moment…prenatally….so that we give everyone the chance at the healthiest start to life.  Then, our schools and communities need to do their part to assure adequate and healthy nutrition throughout the school day with exercise and physical activity to go with it.

Helping families to make the time for activity together is fun and effective!  Getting everyone involved in walking, biking, swimming and managing food portions is a key to healthful living.  Nurses are at the center of this essential community education and are the key to role modeling healthful living.

Melissa Fitzpatrick - Thriving in Chaos

Melissa Fitzpatrick is a healthcare executive who has been a registered nurse since 1977 and has dedicated her career to elevating the profession of nursing and patient and family centered care.  She has held a variety of leadership roles in Academic Medical Centers, in Industry and in professional nursing organizations and has seen the industry face many challenges in the face of rapid change and chaos.



Thriving in chaos requires elegance, dignity, quick thinking and great instincts.  Whether in the ICU, Emergency Department or executive suite, results depend on the leader’s ability to process information quickly, to manage competing demands and ambiguity and to stay focused on the goals at hand.  Minimizing chaos by limiting noise, distraction and inappropriate behavior is essential in order for the team to work effectively.  Having a plan in place and assuring that everyone is aware of the roles, goals and desired outcomes to achieve success is essential.  Practicing that plan in an ongoing manner and doing ‘mock disaster drills’ helps to assure that team members are ready in the event of an actual disaster or emergency. 

Being the calm in the eye of the storm is the role of the leader in a chaotic or emergency situation.  If the leader is demonstrating stress behaviors, communicating poorly or acting inappropriately, this will quickly affect the team’s morale and performance. Delegating effectively and optimizing the use of all resources is key so that no one resource is over extended or under-utilized.  Assuring that you and your team are rested, well-nourished and supported emotionally through the crisis will enable the best outcomes.  We do not execute our plans as well when we are hungry and have had no escape from the situation for hours on end.  Tending to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a great rule of thumb.

Once the crisis has been averted, leading a team debrief and assessing what went well and what did not go well will assure success the next time. 

Melissa Fitzpatrick - The Essence of Nursing

Melissa Fitzpatrick has been dedicated to serving the needs of patients, families and caregivers since she graduated from Gwynedd Mercy College with her Associate’s degree in Nursing in 1977.  Her clinical career took place over many decades in the critical care arena and she rose to executive roles over critical care divisions, entire hospitals and major industry organizations. As an entrepreneur, Melissa is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of Fitzpatrick and Associate based in Chapel Hill, NC. 

                                               

For almost forty years, Melissa Fitzpatrick has lived and breathed the essence of nursing and has worked tirelessly to elevate her beloved profession within the healthcare industry.  She is a champion for nurses and for patients and has written extensively on the essence of nursing.  Providing competent and compassionate care is at the heart of nursing and nurses work hours on end at great personal and physical sacrifice to make sure that patients are safe and that their needs are met.  The knowledge and skills that nurses possess are extraordinary and are put to work 24/7/365.  In today’s chaotic and fast paced healthcare delivery system, nurses remain the ONLY professionals who are with patients at every moment.  Others are important but episodic visitors to the patient’s care site while nurses are the glue that binds and the thread that links all care providers and keeps them up to date on the patient’s wishes and changes as they occur.  The nurse is the ultimate navigator and coordinator of care and the one who knows better than anyone how to get things done when obstacles are placed in the way.  Serving as the patient’s advocate and assuring that the patient’s needs are known and met is the essence of nursing.

How lucky are we as nurses to be with those at the most important times of their lives?

Melissa Fitzpatrick - Caring for Patients and Families

Melissa Fitzpatrick has always wanted to serve in a professional career that helps others, especially those at the most vulnerable times of their lives in the critical care arena. She chose a career as a nurse because she had a talent for working with others and was able to perform in highly stressful situations. She is also a natural leader who brought a wide range of clinical, teamwork and communication skills to every role. She has been a registered nurse since 1977obtaining an Associate’s degree, Bachelor of Science degree, and Master’s degree in nursing. She has worked tirelessly for the sake of those that she serves including patients, families and fellow caregivers and leaders.

 As a nurse for almost forty years, Melissa Fitzpatrick understands the complexities of patient care delivery and the many dynamics at play in the care environment.  Her goal has always been to be the advocate for patients and families and to assure that their multi-dimensional needs are met.  In the critical care setting, nurses are often the voice for the patient and must be supported in their ability to be a strong patient advocate.

Providing compassionate and competent care is the essence of nursing care.  One without the other is not enough.  The nurse is the only professional with the patient 24/7 and that is a great privilege that holds tremendous responsibility.  Nursing presence and vigilance have a positive impact on patient outcomes and the patient’s experience.  Nurses have an essential role to play in assuring that the patient’s needs are met and that the experience is as patient/family centered as possible.  As patients and families have more choice in their care delivery systems, they will rely more and more on the essence of nursing care to make the difference in their outcomes and satisfaction.