National Nurses Week (National Hospital Week) will be celebrated starting on May 6―through Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12. This week provides a special opportunity to recognize the skilled, caring, compassionate care that nurses deliver to patients every day of the year. It showcases the nursing profession’s dedication to inspire, innovate and influence.
Today’s reality―an aging population with increasing healthcare needs, highly complex inpatient cases, and sharply rising costs combined with shrinking reimbursement, are challenging hospitals to optimize internal operations and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of care. Additionally, emergency department (ED) overcrowding that results from delays in getting patients placed in a bed can also result in ambulance diversions―all of which negatively impact the quality and safety of patient care. Not to mention the fact that hospitals risk losing revenue from inefficient processes.
The National Patient Safety Foundation’s Patient Safety Awareness Week kicked off Sunday, March 12th and is a week dedicated to not only raising awareness about patient safety, but also recognizing the efforts of healthcare professionals to keep patients safe.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) placed a spotlight on the issue of medical errors— and the related patient safety concerns— more than 15 years ago. While significant advances have been made, there is still work to be done since even one error is one error too many.
We’re excited to announce the kickoff of an exciting new partnership with The DAISY Foundation – The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses in Patient Flow. The award recognizes the amazing work nurses do behind the scenes to ensure patients are receiving the right care, in the right place, and at the right time.
To nominate a nurse or team of nurses that often work behind the scenes to manage and improve patient flow, click here for more information.
A celebration of nurses – National Nurses Week 2016
Before looking ahead to National Nurses Week 2016, let’s take a quick look back at the woman who inspired this celebration—Florence Nightingale. From the time she was a child, Florence knew nursing was her calling—she was committed to helping people and providing warm, compassionate care.
Florence also understood the importance of process and the role it plays in ensuring quality patient care and delivering positive outcomes. Early in her career, she helped fight a cholera epidemic at the hospital she was working at by improving hygiene practices, which significantly lowered the death rate.
The TeleTracking team recently hit the road for the American Organization of Nurse Executives [AONE] Annual Meeting and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses [AORN] Surgical Conference & Expo. Patient flow and operational efficiency were among the leading topics at both shows, and so were these topics:
Effective, efficient communication is key to effective, efficient patient flow. If there are communication breakdowns between departments, there’s often confusion and delays in getting patients to the right level of care. These delays often lead to unnecessary and redundant phone calls and pages, and undo / redo of patient bed assignments.
The National Patient Safety Foundation’s Patient Safety Awareness Week kicked off on Sunday. A week where the efforts of healthcare professionals to keep patients safe and provide optimum, quality care is recognized. Critical to patient safety is the operational efficiency of a health system – and the strategies and tactics to maximize it.
TeleTracking’s three-part Joint Commission webinar series, presented by Ann Scott Blouin, the Commission’s executive vice president, customer relations, wrapped up with the topic, “An Emerging Arena for Quality & Safety Issues: The Growth of Ambulatory Care”, featuring information from The Joint Commission’s perspective and experience, along with ambulatory industry knowledge.
Download the webinar recording and slide deck.
Geographically diverse. Different reporting structures. The topic of ambulatory care, and the quality and safety implications, is particularly relevant as more and more work is done outside the four walls of a traditional hospital. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that the number of visits to physician offices, hospital outpatient facilities and emergency departments totals 1.2 billion1. Today, the Ambulatory Health Care program at The Joint Commission accredits over 2,1002 organizations in a variety of settings.
Celebrating National Nurses Week 2015
At the height of the Crimean War between Britain and Russia, the mortality rate of British solders brought to the Scutari military hospital in Istanbul was over forty percent. » Continue reading
