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In This Issue:
Meals, Rooms and Discharge
While almost all of the Press, Ganey survey results demonstrated improvement for the ninth quarter, the sections related to meals, rooms and discharge have shown consistent improvement since the survey was first implemented in 2001.
MealsIn the Departments of both Food Services and Nutrition, staff has been hard at work addressing patient satisfaction. Food Services is implementing an educational program consisting of two one-hour sessions for all employees who have contact with patients.
“We’ve already presented two phases of the customer service program to our managers,” said Karen Purdy-Reilly, director, Food Services. “Classes for staff will begin at the end of May, with all training completed by this fall.”
Nutrition has been further developing their patient education component with the creation of patient-friendly nutrition information, which is listed on the back of all modified menus. Menus include an explanation of specific diets that patients can benefit from both at the hospital and in the home. Nutrition has also begun group education classes for the cardiac population on Tower 12.
“Our dieticians conduct two weekly classes for cardiac patients and their families to learn about a healthy heart diet,” said Kathy McManus, RD, MS, director, Department of Nutrition. “The group dynamic has been especially worthwhile, as the practical exchange of information among the patients and their families has brought out questions and information that everyone can learn from.”
RoomsSupport Services has been reviewing and categorizing patient comments reported through Press, Ganey for the past two years to determine areas for improvement.
“We receive about 160 patient comments in a given month,” said Art Mombourquette, vice president, Support Services. “By analyzing these comments, we are able to draw more specific conclusions as to what is working and what is not in order to take action.”
DischargeIncreases in several discharge-related questions have resulted from implementation of a new Care Coordination model across BWH and from efforts to develop or improve patient education materials on most services. Other specific discharge interventions are being piloted on different floors. One example is the creation of a new pilot Nursing role on Tower 14, called the “patient teaching nurse.”
The patient teaching nurse is an expert nurse – a more experienced nurse practicing at a higher level – who assumes the patient teaching function for the day. Working closely with the clinical nurse, care coordinator and physician, who identify patient needs and determine the plan of care, the patient teaching nurse serves as a consultant providing various resources to patients and their families.
“While the patient teaching nurse role is not specific to the discharge process, it does help facilitate it,” said Patricia Brita Rossi, RN, nurse manager, Tower 14. “By teaching patients to better care for themselves and filling their knowledge deficit, we are further preparing them to go home, which absolutely adds efficiency to discharge.”