MO hospital’s infection program goes paperless thus more education time
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Heartland Health, an integrated health delivery system, includes a medical center, physician practices, foundation and a health plan. Heartland seeks to improve the health of area individuals and communities and to provide the right care, at the right time, in the right place, at the right cost with outcomes second to none. Through commitment to this mission, Heartland Health has become the healthcare leader in a 21-county area of northwest Missouri, northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska. www.heartland-health.com
Situation:
When Heartland Health installed SafetySurveillorTM, the hospital’s goal was for its infection preventionists to spend more time educating staff and patients. After a year, there was progress – an ROI tracking tool proved that – but the three-member team was still tethered to paper, especially a senior team member who developed the paper-based system and felt more comfortable with it than electronic surveillance. When the team lost the senior member because of illness, teammates had to pick up the pieces. Suddenly, they were drowning in paper – 15 reports and 300 pieces of paper a day. Something had to give..
Solution:
The team decided to make SafetySurveillor work for them. No more excuses. “We’re going to make it work and work well,” they declared. The team eliminated paper reports and processes, moving quickly and entirely to the automatic solution. Technical problems – which had become “excuses to stick with paper” – were addressed and most of them were fixed by Heartland’s technical staff. Infection preventionists took SafetySurveillor refresher courses and questions and concerns were taken to the SafetySurveillor Help Desk immediately where they were addressed expeditiously.
Results:
- Infection prevention and control is now “paperless”
- Annual paper expense of nearly $1,000 has been eliminated
- Processes have been redesigned around what SafetySurveillor does
- The six hours-plus day spent looking at paper has been redirected to improving education of staff and patients
- No more bothering lab personnel for reports already in SafetySurveillor
- Community-onset and healthcare-associated infection alerts are set
- Automatic reports help meet state and federal reporting requirements
- SafetySurveillor surgery module installation – once seen as “an almost insoluble task” – is operational, thanks to help from surgery volunteers who did most of the necessary coding
"If you’re not using SafetySurveillor fully, you don’t know what it can do and how much less work it’s going to be for you. You’re going to be like I was. ‘I don’t know if it really works. I’m not sure.’ That was eye-opening. The opportunity came when we had to do something or we were just going to go under. We changed our mindset. Let’s make sure we know everything SafetySurveillor can do and use it. Most of the problems were ours. We have so many possibilities now. We’re totally paperless. You just can’t imagine what a burden it takes off of you, not having to look at 300 pieces of paper every day."
Pamela Joggerst, BSN, RN, CIC
Team Leader - Infection Prevention & Control
Heartland Health
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