Improving Care of the Acutely Ill

Presbyterian’s strategy for organizational success is to deliver “Nationally Excellent” care. To meet that goal, we are working hard to improve and standardize care delivery all across our organization. We have established several multi-disciplinary quality improvement teams that are designing new ways to care for our patients based on evidenced-based practice models and research.

Over the past few years we have made many strides toward improving the care we deliver, as exemplified by our Morality Index scores over the past two years. This improvement is the result of hard work and coordination of nurses, physicians and support staff from all over the organization.

Examples of some of the quality improvement projects that have affected nursing are:

• Medical Evaluation Team (MET) – A highly trained group of nurses, physicians and ancillary personnel who respond to prevent patient decomposition and act as an internal consultant team for any staff who needs assistance.
• Admission Care Team (ACT) – A team of nurses and support staff who assist with patient transport and admission procedures throughout the adult units in order to speed up the admission and transfer process.
• Small Equipment Team – A group of technicians that clean, maintain and deliver small equipment items throughout the facility in order to reduce non-patient care time spent by nurses.
• Ventilator Associated Pneumonia Prevention (VAP) – Establish protocols that allow critical care nurses to aggressively treat and maintain ventilated patients in order to prevent pneumonia.
• Surgical Care Infection Prevention (SCIP) - Establish protocols that allow critical care nurses to aggressively manage post-surgical patients in order to prevent infection.
• Central line infection prevention
• Deployment of the Intensivist Staffing Models – All critical care units at the main Presbyterian Hospital are staffed by board certified adult - intensivist, pediatric-intensivist or neonatologist in order to ensure rapid respond and standardized care.
• Advanced Practice Nurses – Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nurse Practitioners and Mid-Wives used throughout Presbyterian facilities to support medical providers by providing advanced nursing practice at the bedside when needed.
• Nicotine Replacement & Flu Shot Protocols – Standing protocols that allow nurses to initiate treatment in order to expedite care, provide comfort and prevent future exposure.