Communication Of Medication Side Effects In An Acute Care Hospital

COMMUNICATION OF MEDICATION SIDE EFFECTS IN AN ACUTE CARE HOSPITAL Effective patient education of prescribed medication side effects improves patient safety and reduces overall risk. On an acute care hospital unit, nursing staff felt previous attempts at this education had been ineffective as demonstrated by their HCAHPs scores for communication about medications. A root cause analysis demonstrated some flaws and several countermeasures were instituted. The goal of this KPI project was to attain a higher than national average for the specific HCAHPs score. Post KPI inception, the unit’s HCAHPs data showed steady improvement. Within one month, the goal of an above national average score was attained. Next steps involve hardwiring newly developed procedures in staff orientation and partner with doctors in the process

Safe Care for Seizure Patients on an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit

Seizure patients admitted to an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit located within an academic tertiary medical center have a high potential to impact patient safety. As a result, a unit based team identified a need for a higher level of training for both their staff and float companions to ensure safe and standardized care for this group of patients. The goal of this quality improvement project was to create an educational tool that would assist 100% of staff in better recognizing and responding to seizures. Baseline metrics and root cause analysis demonstrated a lack of consistent information being taught, a poorly identified target audience as well as educators. Several countermeasures were instituted to include an educational video that standardized seizure and response education. Data collected post rollout demonstrated several positive outcomes to include zero safety events involving this patient population, meeting the goal of 100% of staff educated, and education being mandatory for new staff. Some of the next steps include expanding training to staff caring for pediatric epilepsy patients as well as a tele-sitters video monitoring system request for FY20 budget year