October 30, 2017: I hope you are enjoying reading about the insights our staff gained at the 2017 Magnet Conference in Houston. I encourage you to touch base with your co-workers if you are inspired or curious about something they shared.
Rick Mansfield, BSN, RN, Main Emergency Department
I attended a session called “If it’s broken, fix it! An innovation in self-management education.” This presentation was exciting because they demonstrated two phone apps, “WOW ME” and “MEET ME @ 7” that are free. Patients with congestive heart failure and diabetes can use these apps to track their data and avoid ED visits. What this hospital found is that patients were throwing away their discharge instructions and did not remember the education the RN provided them. When this hospital started using these two apps they found that they were able to keep many of these patients from returning to the ED because the patients had a simple way to help them manage their disease process. I believe this would be an innovative tool we can trial to help patients better manage their disease and understand their discharge instructions. Meanwhile, we need to improve our DC instructions so they are less likely to get tossed out.
Maria Gordon, BSN, RN, Brazos ICU
My take-away from the Magnet conference was “staff first, then the patient.” Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital affords us tools to take care of ourselves and our patients. We need to take advantage of what is offered so we can be healthy and keep giving the highest quality care to our patients and families.
Jessica Saavedra-Serrano, MHA, Project Manager
The System Process Engineering department at Houston Methodist provides the deployment of lean management systems and tools to facilitate clinical process improvement activities. Employees can register to take 2-day course to learn how to apply lean principles in their own departments. However, it can be challenging to translate the language of lean into the clinical world.
At the Magnet conference, Salem Health demonstrated that the lean framework and evidence-based practice principles can be successfully integrated to meet organization strategies and goals. EBP and Lean share common principles, like respect for people, continuous improvement, and reducing variation and improving patient safety. They also share some common methods, like the Scientific Method (PCDA), data measurement, and disseminating learning internally and externally. With EBPs emphasis on the highest level of evidence and clinical procedures, lean’s concepts of focusing on the root cause and creating standard work, come together to create framework that moves easily translates evidence-based practice into improvement in not only clinical outcomes, but also process and financial outcomes. Houston Methodist Sugar Land is ready to apply these principles and take our practice to the next level.
Julie Pickle, PT, MS, Manager Inpatient Physical and Occupational Therapy
The Magnet Conference was great! There was much to be learned, even for us “interprofessionals.” I attended several sessions that spoke to the necessity of increasing our patient’s mobility. We do our patients a great disservice when we are not proactive in assisting everyone who can to be out of bed and ambulating. Maintaining or increasing their mobility while here staves off the deleterious changes in the lungs, the cardiovascular system, and in the muscles and bones themselves. Mobility also helps patients maintain their strength and balance to prevent falls and to have a better opportunity to return home and back to their normal daily living. Mobility is everyone’s job and we can work toward a hospital wide program to mobilize patients everyday on every unit.
– Janet Leatherwood, CNO