ASCEND, At It Again- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
ASCEND, At It Again- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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May 4, 2001
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In This Issue:
ASCEND, At It Again
You Spoke, We’re Acting
Service Hero
Celebrating the Givers
Mother’s Day
5 Digit Dialing System Q & A
Partners Town Meeting
Fitcorp News
Making Work Work for You:
Team Tackles Management of Patient Belongings
Patients admitted to the hospital for a life-threatening illness or those recovering from open-heart surgery have enough anxiety without the added worry about tracking their personal belongings. Effectively managing personal belongings is key to patient satisfaction. Identified as an area of improvement by the Hospital Management Committee (HMC), improving the management of patient belongings at BWH is the project assigned to this year’s seven-member ASCEND team. “Even though data collected by the ASCEND team indicate competing hospitals and other service industry companies are comparable, BWH is relying on us to identify means to reduce the impact of this issue on our patients,” said Leo Buckley, Patient Care Services. Buckley, along with Susan Dempsey, Surgical Services, has shepherded the team’s efforts since its kick-off last October. Said Buckley, “The variety of members’ backgrounds and expertise has moved our progress along swiftly.” Members include Angela Rebello, Center for Neurological Diseases; Donna MacPherson, RN, Cardiovascular Services; Jacqueline Rodriguez-Louis, Pulmonary and Critical Care Division; Kathryn Vacca, Occupational Health Services; and Prabhjyot Singh, RN, Nursing. This is the fifth ASCEND team in the hospital’s history. A Supportive Curriculum in Education and Development was launched in 1998 as a program bringing together applicants from all different departments to collaboratively resolve important issues, most of which directly affect the patient’s experience at BWH. In the process of developing solutions that will positively affect patients’ experiences at BWH, ASCEND team members are awarded the opportunity to network with individuals outside of their departments and improve on their own teambuilding, project management and leadership skills. This year’s team is now beginning to derive workable solutions to enhance BWH’s patient belongings management. To get to this point, the 2000-01 ASCEND team assessed the current management process of patient belongings at BWH. Methods used include:
Identifying current hospital policies;
Surveying key personnel at patient entry points;
Compiling internal financial data and external benchmarking data; and
Analyzing data and developing flow charts.
The team’s final product will either be a new personal belongings management process or improvements to existing processes. Whatever the specific outcome may be, the team will roll out a pilot program based on their findings in one BWH department. The pilot program will then be evaluated using a measurement tool agreed upon by the team. Based on those results, the program will be applied to the hospital as a whole. “As a group, we’ve put a lot of energy into this project, so we want to make sure we provide feasible recommendations. The results of the pilot program will be a good indication of that,” said Dempsey.
Do you want to make a difference in patients’ experiences at BWH?
One way to do that is to get involved in ASCEND, which provides an opportunity to:
Network with BWH employees outside your department
Be part of a team committed to tackling issues directly related to patient satisfaction
Polish up your teambuilding, project management and leadership skills
Look for more details on the next ASCEND team to be assembled in the fall. Application details will be included in future issues of Bulletin. Any questions can be directed to Becky Trask at ext. 2-4877.