Saint Vincent Health Center
Challenge:
Saint Vincent Health Center (SVHC) was the first medical institution in the Erie, Pennsylvania area. Established in 1875 the facility now houses 425 beds and continues to serve the area of northwestern Pennsylvania with a keen focus on patient safety.
The OR staff at Saint Vincent face the same challenges that all hospitals share today when it comes to meeting the requirements of regulatory agencies. Organizations such as the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), and programs including the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), issue requirements which hospitals must meet in order to be in compliance. Each year maintaining compliance becomes more challenging as new requirements and initiatives are issued.
Solution:
Lynne Yaple, RN, CNOR, clinical system administrator at SVHC, uses an OR solution provided by Surgical Information Systems to keep the OR staff on top of new regulatory requirements. She uses the SIS Solution not only to develop best practices, but also to document, report and review hospital measures taken to achieve compliance.
The key has been establishing an automated process for documentation that each nurse must follow exactly for every case. By automating the process, Yaple has ensured that the necessary data is captured for each case as a by-product of patient care. But regulatory requirements frequently change, so it is critical to implement a perioperative system that is flexible and can easily adapt to new rules for documentation.
Flexible reporting tools are essential as well. The OR staff can run in-depth reports at any time to review the effectiveness of hospital initiatives and compare them with benchmarks from national programs and agencies. With the SIS Solution, SVHC staff can easily enter and extract the critical data they need to meet regulatory requirements.
Results:
Using SIS, Saint Vincent Health Center has consistently exceeded state and national averages for quality measures. Lynne Yaple has found it easy to monitor compliance using the automated process and functional reporting tools, and training new staff to fulfill the initiatives has been simplified as well.
SVHC measurement of SCIP project goals includes immediate post op normothermia on all patients, appropriate hair removal, and proper selection and time given for prophylactic antibiotics. Custom reports through SIS allow management staff to quickly and easily display compliance with SCIP goals at any time. This saves both time and money, and allows OR staff at the bedside to devote more time to quality patient care.
Testimonials:
“The SIS solution has given us a lot of value in our organization with meeting all of the regulatory body regulations that come out and change yearly. I find that it’s very easy to change and meet those demands.”
“SIS allows me to use my imagination and to run reports in different ways. It’s helpful to see things displayed the way I want to see them. It also allows me to be creative with the regulatory body demands on nursing and documenting what they do. It’s really easy to use.”
Lynne Yaple, RN, CNOR
Clinical System Administrator
Saint Vincent Health Center (SVHC) was the first medical institution in the Erie, Pennsylvania area. Established in 1875 the facility now houses 425 beds and continues to serve the area of northwestern Pennsylvania with a keen focus on patient safety.
The OR staff at Saint Vincent face the same challenges that all hospitals share today when it comes to meeting the requirements of regulatory agencies. Organizations such as the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), and programs including the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), issue requirements which hospitals must meet in order to be in compliance. Each year maintaining compliance becomes more challenging as new requirements and initiatives are issued.
Solution:
Lynne Yaple, RN, CNOR, clinical system administrator at SVHC, uses an OR solution provided by Surgical Information Systems to keep the OR staff on top of new regulatory requirements. She uses the SIS Solution not only to develop best practices, but also to document, report and review hospital measures taken to achieve compliance.
The key has been establishing an automated process for documentation that each nurse must follow exactly for every case. By automating the process, Yaple has ensured that the necessary data is captured for each case as a by-product of patient care. But regulatory requirements frequently change, so it is critical to implement a perioperative system that is flexible and can easily adapt to new rules for documentation.
Flexible reporting tools are essential as well. The OR staff can run in-depth reports at any time to review the effectiveness of hospital initiatives and compare them with benchmarks from national programs and agencies. With the SIS Solution, SVHC staff can easily enter and extract the critical data they need to meet regulatory requirements.
Results:
Using SIS, Saint Vincent Health Center has consistently exceeded state and national averages for quality measures. Lynne Yaple has found it easy to monitor compliance using the automated process and functional reporting tools, and training new staff to fulfill the initiatives has been simplified as well.
SVHC measurement of SCIP project goals includes immediate post op normothermia on all patients, appropriate hair removal, and proper selection and time given for prophylactic antibiotics. Custom reports through SIS allow management staff to quickly and easily display compliance with SCIP goals at any time. This saves both time and money, and allows OR staff at the bedside to devote more time to quality patient care.
Testimonials:
“The SIS solution has given us a lot of value in our organization with meeting all of the regulatory body regulations that come out and change yearly. I find that it’s very easy to change and meet those demands.”
“SIS allows me to use my imagination and to run reports in different ways. It’s helpful to see things displayed the way I want to see them. It also allows me to be creative with the regulatory body demands on nursing and documenting what they do. It’s really easy to use.”
Lynne Yaple, RN, CNOR
Clinical System Administrator
