All posts by Faris Islam
Don’t worry. Be happy… and improve patient safety/medical care.
Hospital Enacts New Mandatory Happy Hour for Employees
“Go figure out the best way to improve patient safety and medical care at our hospital.” was what CEO of Memorial Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Gina Stockdale, posed to her panel members. A junior panel member in the back of the room raised his hand and said, “How about a happy hour for employees?”
It may seem ridiculous that down-time and socializing outside the hospital could have measurable positive effects on patient care and performance inside (it certainly did seem silly to some on the panel, as laughter initially followed the suggestion). But, research is showing that socializing and communication can be extremely beneficial to workplace performance. For Memorial Hospital, who as of August 1st has instilled a mandatory 30-minute happy hour session for employees, close collaboration and communication between healthcare staff and teams have already improved, and with it — patient care.
“Numerous studies show that communication between colleagues improves performance and patient outcomes,” said Janet Wilkerson, a patient safety analyst. “It only makes sense to create an atmosphere that promotes interaction and discussion in the hospital. I can’t think of a better way to do that than a happy hour.”
Though their methods are controversial, and we would never endorse mixing alcohol and medical care, Memorial Hospital has made a connection to a theme that we at Prista would like to continue talking about, “Happier staff makes for better care.”
Increasing communication and reducing the stress of managing Risk, Quality and Performance initiatives can and will improve workplace satisfaction and patient care. These key areas (Risk, Quality, Performance and team communication) are at the heart of the ActionCue Clinical Intelligence application.
To read the full article click here: http://www.gomerblog.com/2014/08/happy-hour/
For more information on how the ActionCue hospital risk management software can make you happier or to schedule a demo visit pristacorp.com.
Happiness: The path to better hospital performance
A paper published by Alex Edmans of the University of Pennsylvania in the Academy of Management Perspectives; vol. 26 no. 4, titled “Why Happy Workers Should Make Shareholders Smile” the author describes how job satisfaction pays off with better-than-expected earnings and higher stock returns.
So, I was wondering — it has worked in other industries, why not in healthcare?
Cultivating a happy workforce results in more than just feel-good meetings and upbeat corporate retreats. According to this paper, satisfied employees actually raise the worth of their firms. Analyzing the performance of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work for in America” over a 28-year period, the author found that these firms generated higher yearly stock returns than comparable companies not on the list. They also systematically beat financial analysts’ earnings estimates, an indication that job satisfaction is an important variable.
Too often in hospitals and healthcare organizations, personal job satisfaction is not considered an important data point to providing higher quality of care, improving patient outcomes or reducing medical costs. Instead, more work is heaped on already over-burdened staff and they are told, “…do more, with less.”
All to often it is the patient who pays the price of the shrinking amount of time that nurses and doctors have to spend per patient. What is most unfortunate is when the systems that were developed to make their jobs easier, actually increase the burden — without providing any discernable benefit.
In the past these home-grown systems were all a Risk, Quality Manager had to choose from. But thankfully there are now better solutions that can not only provide better results, but also make their job easier — dare I say, happier?
It should be no surprise that a happier worker is a more engaged and effective worker. So, if you don’t have happy thoughts when you think about your current Risk/Quality Management, Performance Improvement system, then you should consider why.
Be happy. Get ActionCue Clinical Intelligence.
Read the full article here.
To learn more about the ActionCue hospital risk management software click here.
Island Medical Management Chooses ActionCue Clinical Intelligence Healthcare Management Software
Austin, Texas – Island Medical Management has chosen Prista Corporation’s ActionCue® Clinical Intelligence application for use in all of Island Medical facilities nationwide to integrate and standardize their Risk, Quality and Performance Improvement programs.
Island Medical Management (IMM) became a leading regional staffing and management organization, in both Ohio and New York, in 2012 when it acquired 4M Management Systems. Then reaffirmed its position, again in 2013, when it merged with Pegasus Emergency Group, providing Emergency Department leadership, staffing, coding and billing services — expanding to over 40 client hospitals across nine states, and providing care to nearly one million patients.
Managing clinical performance data across 44 facilities was a problem that Beth Wiley, IMM’s Director of Clinical Operations, was tasked with solving.
“We have hospitals throughout the US and we have to know what is going on in them.” Said Wiley. “It’s critical for me and my staff to not just get data in, but to get insight out. There are many sophisticated applications to choose from, but I was looking for a solution that integrated all of our performance improvement functions, and was extremely user-friendly.”
Prista Corporation, an Austin, Texas based healthcare software company, has developed a novel approach to filling this very need. “We understood a particular problem in healthcare that was not being addressed at all, and that’s really applying technology properly to the information needs of healthcare professionals.” said Prista’s Co-founder and President Don Jarrell, “We’ve integrated multiple functions, Risk and Quality Management with Performance Improvement to really save time for people in related work. Instead of presenting just data, the ActionCue software provides insight that is critical for improving patient care and organization performance.”
“A lot of hospitals function with spreadsheets or programs that do a few of these”, Said Wiley referring to the lack of integration, “Unless we are comparing apples-to-apples, it doesn’t mean anything. We needed to pool all of our data into one system that was the same for all facilities. ActionCue allows us to do that. With just a few clicks we can measure performance and see which facilities are meeting their Core benchmarks, and which are not. It also provides a way for our medical directors and regional medical directors to measure and evaluate providers, all in real-time — that is huge for us. I am looking forward to getting started with ActionCue to get rid of all the paper on my desk.”
When asked how he felt about Island Medical selecting ActionCue, Don Jarrell said, “We are getting that purposeful satisfaction of helping to improve patient care.”
Initial implementation to all of IMM’s facilities is scheduled to be completed in October 2014, with enhancements and additional system integration to follow in the next 45 days.
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About Prista Corporation
Prista Corporation is an Austin-based company, providing the SaaS-model, online integrated Risk Management application, ActionCue Clinical Intelligence, currently in use in over 140 facilities in 24 states across the US. For additional information, please visit www.pristacorp.com.
BREAKING NEWS: CDC ISSUES EBOLA UPDATE IN RESPONSE TO DALLAS ER HANDLING
Yahoo News reports today, that in response to the Dallas Hospital ER handling of the recently confirmed Ebola virus case, the CDC was prompted to issue a nationwide alert to all hospitals updating them of how to appropriately respond to possible cases of the deadly disease.
The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Algorithm for Evaluation of the Returned Traveler and the Checklist for Patients Being Evaluated for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the United States are located on the CDC.gov website, and are to help hospital staff identify and evaluate returning travelers for the EVD.
If you have not familiarized yourself with the signs and proper handling of patients who may have the EVD please follow this link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website here: Ebola Update.
Yahoo News Coverage
Temporary Paralysis and Other Things You Need to Know About Enterovirus
Source: ABC News
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There is still a mystery surrounding Enterovirus cases spreading around the country. Now the CDC is investigating possible connections between the virus and temporary paralysis. Although its symptoms are similar to the common cold, its rapid progression and severity makes it very different — with many cases ending up in Intensive Care. Hundreds are hospitalized in 11 states, at higher risk are children with asthma.
Here are some important things you should know:
• Highly contagious, spreadable by cough or sneeze, and also can live on surfaces. But full knowledge of how is spreads is unknown due to lack of scientific studies on the virus.
• Starts like common cold; Runny Nose, Coughing, sneezing and fever
• Progresses rapidly; difficulty breathing, possible loss of consciousness (look for wheezing, shortness of breath or difficulty speaking)
Apparently this isn’t the first case of an outbreak of Enterovirus (EV-D68). According to a 2011 CDC report, from 2008 to 2010 there were clusters of Acute Respiratory Illness associated with EV-D68 across multiple continents including Asia, Europe and the United States. While it’s not the first time however, health officials are scratching their heads as to why it has reemerged… and with such voracity.
Particularly alarming is the lack of specific treatment for the virus and its, now possible, connection to acute onset of focal limb weakness — or temporary paralysis. Instead, health officials are tasked with treating the symptoms of the infection, often requiring hospitalization.
For the most current information on the virus, and to find out what is being done about it, visit the CDC website.
The CDC has a specific link for Healthcare Professionals on Evaluating, Reporting, Testing and Infection Control Recommendations here.