Improving Patient Satisfaction with the Virtual Handoff Process through the Utilization of Educational Pamphlets in the Emergency Department

Boarding patients in the emergency room while waiting to transfer the patient to the proper unit can be harmful to clinical care and have significant financial opportunity costs. At one local hospital it was found that on average patients were being boarded in the emergency room (ED) for approximately 85 minutes waiting to be transferred. Several barriers that caused this delay were found including, delay in room cleaning, nurse staff shortage, and inability to give report to the nurse receiving the patient. In an attempt to combat this delay which may be caused by a difficulty in giving patient report, this organization is rolling out a virtual bedside handoff process. While virtual technology is not a new concept, there are many patients that may not be comfortable with the technology. The purpose of the evidence-based project was to provide a written educational pamphlet that details the how’s and why’s of the virtual handoff process to the patient to be given upon admission. The goal of the educational pamphlet was to increase the patients’ satisfaction with the process. A pre-survey was given to a group of patients after they experienced the virtual handoff process to assess their comfort level. These results were compared to the post-survey results of patients that received the educational pamphlet prior to experiencing the virtual handoff process. Ten pre-surveys and seven post-surveys were analyzed utilizing SPSS and descriptive statistics. The analysis concluded that the participants who received the educational pamphlet felt more prepared for the virtual handoff process

Training interventions for improving telephone consultation skills in clinicians

The objectives are as follows: To assess the effectiveness of training interventions on clinician telephone skills

Teaching patient handoffs in the ambulatory setting: a comparison of three instructional methods

2015 Summer.This quantitative study explored methods of teaching patient handoff and communication skills to health professions students. The researcher sought to answer the following research questions: 1) Does the instructional mode used to deliver patient handoff training influence the participant’s behaviors and performance during simulated patient handoffs? 2) Is there a difference between instructional mode groups in the participants' perceptions of their assigned teaching method during the research study? A randomized experimental design with matching was used to examine whether the instructional mode used to deliver patient handoff training influenced the participant’s behaviors and performance during simulated patient handoffs. Twenty-eight physician assistant (PA) students were distributed to the three instructional groups in the study: didactic lectures (Group A), simulation of patient handoffs to paramedics (Group B), or no intervention (Group C). All PA students participated in the posttest patient handoff simulation. The results of the first question showed that simulation was more effective in teaching patient handoff skills to physician assistant students when compared to didactic lectures (p = .018) and the traditional PA curriculum (p = .000). For the second question, there were no significant differences in the instructional groups' perceptions of their assigned teaching method. These findings may help guide other physician assistant programs considering introducing patient handoff education in the didactic phase of the curriculum

Enhancing Care Transitions for Older People through Interprofessional Simulation: A Mixed Method Evaluation

Introduction: The educational needs of the health and social care workforce for delivering effective integrated care are important. This paper reports on the development, pilot and evaluation of an interprofessional simulation course, which aimed to support integrated care models for care transitions for older people from hospital to home. Theory and methods: The course development was informed by a literature review and a scoping exercise with the health and social care workforce. The course ran six times and was attended by health and social care professionals from hospital and community (n=49). The evaluation aimed to elicit staff perceptions of their learning about care transfers of older people and to explore application of learning into practice and perceived outcomes. The study used a sequential mixed method design with questionnaires completed pre (n=44) and post (n=47) course and interviews (n=9) 2-5 months later. Results:Participants evaluated interprofessional simulation as a successful strategy. Post-course, participants identified learning points and at the interviews, similar themes with examples of application in practice were: Understanding individual needs and empathy; Communicating with patients and families; Interprofessional working; Working across settings to achieve effective care transitions. Conclusions and discussion:An interprofessional simulation course successfully brought together health and social care professionals across settings to develop integrated care skills and improve care transitions for older people with complex needs from hospital to home

Assessing and enhancing quality through outcomes-based continuing professional development (CPD): a review of current practice

Numerous professional bodies have questioned whether traditional input-based continuing professional development (CPD) schemes are effective at measuring genuine learning and improving practice performance and patient health. The most commonly used type of long-established CPD activities, such as conferences, lectures and symposia, have been found to have a limited effect on improving practitioner competence and performance, and no significant effect on patient health outcomes. Additionally, it is thought that the impact of many CPD activities is reduced when they are undertaken in isolation outside of a defined structure of directed learning. In contrast, CPD activities which are interactive, encourage reflection on practice, provide opportunities to practice skills, involve multiple exposures, help practitioners to identify between current performance and a standard to be achieved, and are focused on outcomes, are the most effective at improving practice and patient health outcomes

Reducing 30-Day Hospital Readmission Among Mentally Ill Homeless Men with Substance Use Disorder

Abstract Background: Psychiatric inpatient readmission of mentally ill homeless men is greater than that of the overall population. Substance use disorders co-occur with high prevalence in patients diagnosed with mental illness. For mentally ill homeless individuals discharged after inpatient treatment, substance use disorder negatively impacts health behavior, and medication non-compliant, resulting in hospital readmission. Problem: In an acute care psychiatric facility in Northern California, the greatest readmission after inpatient hospitalization occurs at 53.9% in a week and 74.8% in two weeks of discharge. For homeless individuals, substance use disorder complicates personal problems and decreases the likelihood of a long-term exit from homelessness. As a result, hospital readmissions among the homeless population are higher than in the general population. One of the problems faced by this unit is frequent readmissions of the same group of homeless patients two to three times every month (24-36 times per year). Methods: Implementing a nurse navigator program in the mental health unit is anticipated to improve the transition of care between the inpatient setting and the facility\u27s other mental health outpatient clinics. The goal of this nurse navigator is to ensure that patients are medication compliant immediately after discharge from the inpatient unit and can keep outpatient appointments to support medication compliance. Conclusion: Evidence from the published literature presented a compelling need to include follow-up care, comprehensive discharge planning, and nurse navigation

The Effect of Standardized Patient Education on 30-Day Hospital Readmissions for Heart Failure Patients in the Outpatient Setting

Problem: Heart failure (HF) is the second leading condition of hospital readmissions. Evidence shows that patient education on self-care and disease management can help reduce and prevent 30-day hospital readmissions. Registered nurse case managers (RN CMs) can help improve patients\u27 ability to self-manage their condition and prevent 30-day hospital readmissions by applying a standard approach to patient education. Context: The Integrated Care Management (ICM) is an outpatient department that provides post-discharge patient calls. The ICM RN CMs utilized various HF patient education tools for patient teaching. The organization’s HF task force developed health-literate patient resources to be used uniformly across the system. Intervention: RN CMs will be trained on standardized HF resources. All HF patients eligible for ICM services recently discharged from the hospital will receive the newly standardized HF education from the RN CM. Measure: The targeted outcome is reducing the 30-day hospital readmission rate for HF patients by 2.3%. The process measure is to achieve 100% utilization of a documentation template applied to all HF patients receiving HF education. Results: There were no HF readmissions within the project time frame, thus achieving the target reduction of 2.3% for the 30-day HF hospital readmission rate from 11.9% to 9.6% %. Conclusions: Standardized HF patient education tools and documentation templates can streamline the management of HF patients after discharge from the hospital and reduce 30-day readmissions in this patient population. Keywords: heart failure, patient education, 30-day hospital readmission

Sexuality and Spinal Cord Injury: A Manual for Occupational Therapists in the Inpatient Rehabilitation Setting

The topic of sexuality has not been addressed in its entirety within the profession of occupational therapy and has been identified by patients as a need in order to receive comprehensive and holistic care (New, Seddon, Redpath, Currie, and Warren, 2016). More specifically, with 12,500 new cases of spinal cord injury (SCI) that occur each year, in addition to the significant impact on body functions that result from SCI, the topic of sexuality needs particular attention with this population (National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, 2015). The purpose of this scholarly project was to create a manual supported by literature that can be used by occupational therapists working with patients with SCI in the inpatient rehabilitation setting to address sexuality. The authors conducted an in-depth literature review regarding the topic of sexuality in the healthcare setting as well as sexuality with the SCI population. The authors created a manual, guided by the Ecology of Human Performance (EHP) model and the ALLOW model. These models provide structure to the occupational therapy treatment process, from the evaluation to the outcomes. The manual is to be used as a reference, a resource, and a guide for occupational therapists to use when addressing sexuality with patients with SCI in the inpatient rehabilitation setting

Analysis of Maternity Practices in Ghana with the Implementation of Telemedicine

This paper will specifically examine the similarities and differences between maternity practices in Ghana and the U.S., and identify how telemedicine can be used to improve these practices