Reprinted with permission from the February/March 2020 issue of Focus on Faulkner
As part of Faulkner Hospital's successful efforts to provide excellent care to its patients with Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), a team of nurses, educators and physicians from Faulkner Hospital recently visited The Boston Center, a rehabilitation and sub-acute care facility.
Faulkner Hospital's CHF team, newly renamed the Core Measurement Improvement Team, led by Dr. Stephen Wright, Faulkner Hospital's Chief of Medicine, and Kathleen Newcomb, Quality Improvement Analyst and the team project leader, initiated this collaboration in an effort to improve the continuum of care for CHF patients. By sharing best practices with each other, both facilities hope to reduce unnecessary readmissions caused by noncompliance with diet and medications.
Through these discussions, both facilities reviewed best practices in order to identify opportunities for improvement in our own program. Among the items used that were deemed helpful was an educational video Faulkner Hospital shows to all of its CHF patients to educate them about the basics of the disease process and what they can do to maintain the gains made in the hospital once they have been discharged. Patients also receive an information packet given to all CHF patients explaining diet guidelines, rehab information, discharge information, follow-up with their primary care provider and how to monitor their weight. This is the single most important measure for a patient to monitor, as weight increases are often the first indicator that the patient may be slipping into an acute situation. Twenty-five percent of CHF readmissions are due to noncompliance with nutritional requirements.
As a result of the new collaboration, The Boston Center has purchased the video, implemented reinforcement of the information in their patient packets and has begun a "kitchen" program where patients learn how to prepare low sodium meals required for all CHF patients.
"This collaboration is wonderful for Falkner Hospital and The Boston Center," says Dr. Wright. "Now patients will receive continuity of care and their rehabilitation will be much more tailored to their condition, reducing the risk of future readmissions to the hospital simply because they weren't getting all of the knowledge they needed to care for their condition at home."
As part of this collaborative effort, both facilities will meet quarterly to discuss the effectiveness of the program, and to collaborate on further program enhancements to provide ongoing quality improvement. The Boston Center plans to audit the records of all of Faulkner Hospital CHF patients in order to track what information is coming along with them. This will establish a quality control system to ensure the right information is being given to each patient.
printer friendly