Success Stories

Healthcare providers are active in a broad range of patient care measurement, evaluation and improvement activities. In addition to the “numbers,” it’s important to understand the stories that lead to improvements in patient outcomes. The healthcare providers featured here are proud to share with you their success stories in making patient care better and safer.

Latest Success Stories from Massachusetts & Rhode Island Hospitals

For other stories about hospital efforts to stem infections, falls, readmissions, and more click on the tabs under "Success Stories" in the column at left.

Massachusetts Hospitals are Working Hard to Ensure Patient Safety

The Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) once again, is serving a Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN), as part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Partnership for Patients (PfP) Campaign.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) a two-year HIIN contract (with an optional third year based on performance), to continue efforts to reduce all-cause inpatient harm by 20 percent and readmissions by 12 percent by 2018. An American Journal of Medical Quality article, written by HRET staff, explores the relationship between engagement in improvement activities and affected quality measures. Read more...

MHA's Participation in the Choosing Wisely Massachusetts Campaign led by Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP)

Hospitals and others are coming together to encourage patients to discuss with their physicians whether diagnostic imaging in the treatment of lower back pain and persistent headaches is appropriate. The goal is to help erase the long-held misconception that "more" care equals "better" care.

Massachusetts Hospitals are Leading the  Effort Against Opioid Addiction

Hospitals are currently adopting the recommendations from MHA's Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Task Force that will assist in reducing the number of opioid pain prescriptions from hospital EDs and result in a corresponding reduction in the number of opioid overdoses that are occurring in Massachusetts.

Effect of a  Multidisciplinary Team Approach to Eradicate Central Line Associated Blood-Stream Infections (CLABSI)

At UMass Memorial Medical Center use of a multimodal approach to catheter care resulted in more than an 89% decrease in CLABSI over a 7-year period.

Infection Prevention: Highlights from Massachusetts Hospitals

For the past two years, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors (the Coalition) and the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) have been offering programming to support the prevention of hospital-acquired infections throughout the Bay State. The Coalition and MHA are pleased to present a sample of the infection prevention successes from Massachusetts hospitals across the state. If you are a consumer, use this guide to see what hospitals in your area are doing to prevent hospital-acquired infections. If you are a provider, look for ideas that you can incorporate into your own infection prevention efforts.

BID - Plymouth (formally Jordan Hospital's) Great Success in Combating Infections

Over six consecutive months in 2013, Jordan Hospital in Plymouth has not recorded a single catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) in its Critical Care Center - an impressive statistic that has required intensive, shift-by-shift persistence by caregiving teams throughout the hospital and a wholesale change in the hospital culture.

  • AONL’s Releases Third Section of its Workforce Compendium

    This section focuses on academic-practice partnerships, culture of inquiry, and total rewards.

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  • MHA Launches New Workforce Toolkit

    Building on the success of our Workforce Summit, MHA developed an interactive toolkit to share just a few of the best and emerging practices to address current workforce challenges.

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  • Story: Hospitals align care with new state requirements for patients with dementia

    The unique safety and care needs of geriatric patients are receiving increased attention in hospitals, due in part to new state requirements for identifying patients with dementia and optimizing their care.

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  • AHA Releases “Building the Team” Workforce Strategies Guide

    The AHA in September 2022 released the third and final section of its workforce strategies guide designed to help hospital and health system leaders navigate workforce challenges and opportunities. Today’s section focuses on recruitment and retention, diversity and inclusion, and creative staffing models. The guide, which was informed by the AHA Board of Trustees’ Task Force on W...» Full Article

  • The Nursing Workforce

    Due to a dynamic combination of factors within the nursing workforce including an uptick in retirements, resignations, requests to reduce hours, and competitive labor markets, healthcare organizations across the Northeast are struggling to maintain a nursing workforce that supports safe, effective patient care and an engaging, secure professional environment for staff. Read more. ...» Full Article

  • NAM launches AHA-supported resource compendium for health care worker well-being

    NAM launches AHA-supported resource compendium for health care worker well-being. The National Academy of Medicine today launched Resource Compendium for Health Care Worker Well-Being, which highlights tools that are ready to be deployed and strategies to address systems issues related to health care workers’ burnout. The compendium, which is a product of the Action Collaborative on Clinician W...» Full Article

  • At Cambridge Health Alliance, Delaying Baby’s Bath Improves Baby’s Health

    Imagine you're a newborn, contentedly relaxing in a dark and warm place, bathed in amniotic fluid, when suddenly - BAM! - you're out in the world, surrounded by strange people, who are smiling and cooing at you but who are, nonetheless, very, very strange. "It's the greatest adventure of their lives," says Cheryl McInerney, R.N., IBCLC, a lactation consultant at Cambridge Health Alliance. "And ...» Full Article

  • Berkshire Medical Center Reduces Readmissions

    Across the state hospitals are uniting with community-based organizations to form tight, integrated clusters of care with the goal of reducing hospital readmissions. Focusing on high-risk Medicare patients recently discharged from hospitals, and funded through Section 3026 of the Affordable Care Act, these Community-based Care Transition Programs (CCTPs) are successfully cutting avoidable readm...» Full Article

  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center among the first-ever awardees in the National Awards Program to Recognize Progress in Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections

    The US Department of Health and Human Services has named Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center among the first-ever awardees in the National Awards Program to Recognize Progress in Eliminating Healthcare-Associated Infections. The awards focus on central line infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia, two of the deadliest and most expensive hospital-acquired infections. Preventing hospital-...» Full Article

  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Wins $4.9 Million Grant for Program to Improve Patient Outcomes Within 30-Day Window of Discharge

    One of only 26 national Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovations Grants Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will receive $4.9 million from the highly competitive first round of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Grants, to launch a Post-Acute Care Transitions (PACT) program designed to improve patient outcomes and prevent avoidable cost in the high-risk 30-day period following acu...» Full Article

  • Beverly Hospital Implements Nurse-Led Program to Reduce Patient Falls

    Beverly Hospital in Massachusetts has significantly reduced the rate of patient falls on its units by implementing a comprehensive fall prevention program, WCVB Boston reports. According to a recent state report, 70 percent of serious injuries in Massachusetts hospitals were caused by falls, with older adults proving particularly vulnerable. As a result, preventing falls has become a top priorit...» Full Article

  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Will Collaborate in Two Additional Federal Innovation Grants

    Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will collaborate in two additional federal innovation awards announced last week: one with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center as part of the High Value Healthcare Collaborative (HVHC) and one with Mayo Clinic.These awards were announced as part of the second and final round of Innovation Grants awarded by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation...» Full Article

  • Boston Medical Center Nurses Teach Pressure Ulcer Prevention

    Three nurses at Boston Medical Center are taking a proactive rather than reactive approach to skin care.  The skin team RNs - two full time and one part time - constantly emphasize the importance of assessing patients' skin from head to toe. Because ongoing documentation of pressure ulcers is necessary to ensure Medicare reimbursement, the nurses review with staff on a regular basis how to pro...» Full Article

  • Boston Medical Center Tackles Alarm Fatigue and Noise

    Hospitals around the country are grappling with the issue of alarm fatigue. The concern is that the constant noise of equipment alarms on hospital inpatient floors is so overwhelming that nurses can become desensitized, thereby creating potential patient safety risks. This issue is so pervasive that the Joint Commission--the accrediting body for hospitals nationwide--is implementing a new nationa...» Full Article

  • CDC: Hospitals continue progress in preventing infections

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today announced significant gains in hospitals' efforts to prevent healthcare-associated infections in 2010. These include a 33% reduction in central line-associated bloodstream infections, 18% reduction in healthcare-associated invasive MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), 10% reduction in surgical-site infections, and 7% reduction in...» Full Article

  • Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s Positive Culture Led to Pressure Ulcer Improvements

    In the past eight quarters since the end of 2007, Cooley Dickinson Hospital - a 140-bed facility in Northampton, Massachusetts - has had three quarters with zero incidents of pressure ulcers (bed sores).It's impressive because even under the best circumstances, bedsores "happen." That is, patients enter hospitals with their skin severely compromised from long illnesses. Or their treatment is so s...» Full Article

  • Cooley Dickinson Hospital: Better-than-National Infection Rate Drops Further Following UV Room Disinfection

      In America's hospitals, approximately one in 20 patients will contract a hospital-acquired infection (HAI). At Cooley Dickinson Hospital last year, one in 129 patients got an HAI. Now, those better odds of avoiding an infection at Cooley Dickinson have improved even further, as the hospital has documented a groundbreaking 82 percent drop in one type of infection, Clostridium difficile (C. ...» Full Article

  • Heywood Hospital Addresses Falls with Injury

    Falls in hospitals happen. Recognizing the issue, the Joint Commission has stepped in to require hospitals to implement falls-reduction programs as a requirement of accreditation, and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services will no longer reimburse hospitals for the cost of care that results from inpatient falls. Heywood Hospital in Gardner, Mass. - a 134 bed community hospital - has assembled a team to deal with the falls issue, which at Heywood is made even more difficult ty the presence of an in-facility geriatric psychiatric unit.

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  • Strengthening the Healthcare Workforce

    The American Hospital Association’s Task Force on Workforce has released a new resource to help hospitals navigate workforce challenges and opportunities, as well as highlight strategies, resources, and case studies to assist on these pivotal efforts. Included in this resource is Section 1 focusing on Support the Team through addressing wellbeing, support behavioral health, and workplace violen...» Full Article

  • Jordan Hospital’s Great Success in Combating Infections

    Over six consecutive months in 2013, Jordan Hospital in Plymouth has not recorded a single catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) in its Critical Care Center- an impressive statistic that has required intensive, shift-by-shift persistence by caregiving teams throughout the hospital and a wholesale change in the hospital's culture.By eliminating incidences of CAUTI, a common infection...» Full Article

  • Lawrence General Hospital Boosts Safety and Satisfaction with Initiative Care

    There is always a lot of talk about the power of teamwork and successful teams yet there is little talk of what actually defines a great team. This 2011 article in Advance for Nurses discusses how nurses on a med/surg floor at Lawrence General Hospital improved patient safety through making hourly "rounds with purpose"....» Full Article

  • Making Strides at Jordan Hospital to Reduce Falls

    Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Mass., has undertaken an innovative strategy to deal with patient falls, which is a common problem that occurs just about everywhere that care is provided -- from hospitals to homes.People who are ill, recovering from surgery, on new medications - to name just a few of numerous reasons - often fall down, causing serious injury. It's a phenomenon that has caused all ho...» Full Article

  • Mercy Medical Center, Implements a Program to Decrease Pressure Ulcers

    As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continue to provide less payment for hospital acquired pressure ulcers, increased demands are placed on nurses to reduce the number of patients who acquire these conditions. As pressure-ulcer incidence rates continue to rise, more hospitals are implementing intervention and prevention programs in order to combat pressure ulcer occurrence a...» Full Article

  • MetroWest Medical Center Demystifies Outpatient Satisfaction

    For MetroWest Medical Center, a 319-bed regional healthcare system with hospital campuses and outpatient facilities in the adjacent towns of Framingham and Natick, Mass., seven was just the right number of tactics needed to put its outpatient scores where they belonged - at the top. In fact, throughout fiscal year 2011, MetroWest's outpatient scores have consistently remained above the 96th perce...» Full Article

  • Milton Hospital Reduces Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections

     Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs) are an often preventable healthcare- associated infection (HAI) common in hospitals across the country.  These infections can be a serious complication for patients, can increase the time they are hospitalized and add to the cost of care. On occasion, antibiotic treatment of CAUTIs can also pose potential health risks for the patient.PLAN: ...» Full Article

  • New Bedford Rehab’s use of volumetric capnography

    New Bedford Rehabilitation Hospital is using the latest, non-invasive monitoring technology to accelerate the time in which patients are weaned from their ventilators. Using volumetric capnography has resulted in a 29% reduction in the average length of time that patients spend on ventilators, which in turn reduces the patient's risk for pneumonia and damage to lung tissue, while increasing the p...» Full Article

  • Newton-Wellesley Hospital: eMAP Rx for Medication Errors?

    According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), "medication-related error … is one of the most common types of error, substantial numbers of individuals are affected, and it accounts for a sizable increase in health care costs."*  In order to decrease the potential for medication-related errors, Newton-Wellesley Hospital launched a major patient safety initiative in 2009 - the implementation of ...» Full Article

  • Norwell VNA Fights Readmissions

    A program at the Norwell VNA and Hospice that targets patients with Heart Failure (HF) has proven successful in reducing hospital admissions and readmission.The Norwell model relies on two foundational elements: (1) a strong clinical commitment to chronic care management using a wide-ranging team of providers and the patient, and (2) early intervention using telehealth technology.All of Norwell's...» Full Article

  • Partners Study on Falls Featured in JAMA

    Reducing falls and the injuries that arise from such falls is a major goal of Massachusetts hospitals, which report their falls data through PatientCareLink. And our hospitals are developing the best practices, innovative strategies, and measurement tools that other states are using to address the issue.In the Vol. 304, No. 17, November 3, 2010, issue of JAMA - the Journal of the American Medical...» Full Article

  • Partners: Coordinating Care for High-Risk Patients

    The results are in from Partners HealthCare's Medicare demonstration project that was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).In August, 2006, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) funded the MGH and the hospital's physician organization to launch the Care Management Program at MGH, one of six demonstration projects nationwide. During the three-year demonstration, the MGH develope...» Full Article

  • MetroWest’s Readmission Intervention Strategies

    In 2011, MetroWest HomeCare & Hospice, in partnership with MetroWest Medical Center, initiated a strategic and evidence based effort to reduce their emergent care visits and acute care hospitalization rates. Together these efforts have proven successful in reducing overall acute care hospitalization rates.

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  • Reducing Surgical Site Infections at New England Baptist Hospital

    By John C. Richmond, MD and Maureen Spencer, RN, M.Ed, CICThis article is reprinted from the August 2010 First Do No Harm newsletter produced by the Quality and Patient Safety Division of the Massachusetts  Board of Registration in MedicineA post-operative infection can be a devastating complication for any patient. This is particularly true in elective orthopedic surgery, where the patient typi...» Full Article

  • Southcoast Health System: Reducing the Use of Safety Sitters

    Southcoast Health System's well thought-out program to reduce patient "sitters" - the individuals who spend time with patients to ensure that they do not fall and injure themselves - makes sense financially for the system, but has its genesis in improving patient safety and strengthening the caregiving team."They're not just sitting there. They are now interacting with the patients" says Joyce Do...» Full Article

  • Spaulding Rehab Cape Cod Reduces Adverse Drug Events

    Since its physicians began using a new Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system when prescribing drugs and after it set up a peer-review panel that assessed medication errors, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital - Cape Cod in Sandwich has reduced Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) by 61%.

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  • Tufts’ CLABSI Team Scores Remarkable Success

    At Tufts Medical Center (Tufts MC) in downtown Boston, the small team that was assembled to reduce, or eliminate, CLABSI has had remarkable success. Since 2010, through a daily effort that has involved the hospital's most senior leadership, nurses at the bedside, and assistive personnel, Tufts Medical Center reduced central line-associated bloodstream infections by 80%. In some of its units, Tufts MC has had 600 and 800 CLABSI-free days.

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  • Two Hospitals are Co-Winners of Betsy Lehman Patient Safety Award

    A Focus on Infection Prevention Two hospitals within the UMass Memorial Health Care system each received the 2009 Betsy Lehman Patient Safety Recognition Award from the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction, a program established under the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and housed within the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. UMass Memorial Med...» Full Article

  • UMass Memorial Diabetes Scorecard

    Tool used to help engage patients in their own care.One of the biggest challenges with managing diabetes is motivating patients to take an appropriately active role in their health.  To help meet this challenge, UMass Memorial Medical Center has launched a pilot program to test an innovative diabetes management "scorecard."The scorecard contains the patient's diabetes-related health information ...» Full Article

  • Winchester Hospital — Reducing IV-associated bloodstream infection

    Executive Treatment Urged to Drive Down Infection RatesBy Jane Sherwin Culture change requires top leadership to get engaged, collaborate with staffReducing catheter-related bloodstream infections remains a challenge for many hospitals. In a recent survey by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, 40 percent of respondents said their hospitals had been targeting C...» Full Article

  • Winchester Hospital’s Hand-Hygiene Competency

     An estimated 85 percent of hospital-acquired infections are due to organisms carried on the hands of personnel. As a result, Winchester Hospital has launched a hospital-wide hand hygiene competency for all employees in an effort to save patients from avoidable harm.The competency includes reciting three opportunities for hand hygiene, communicating three infection prevention strategies (staying...» Full Article

  • Winchester Hospital: A Focus on Outcomes

    Like all hospitals, Winchester Hospital has its share of preventable harm events and, like all hospitals, it is constantly striving to improve. In 2008, Winchester Hospital experienced 108 preventable harm events in five categories: serious medication errors; surgical site infections; ventilator-associated pneumonia; falls with serious injury; and central line-associated bloodstream infections. A...» Full Article

  • Winchester’s Hospital to Home Care for Joint Replacement Patients

    A partnership between the Winchester Hospital Joint Program, Excel Orthopedics, and Winchester Home Care, via a private health information exchange, is working on a collaborative effort to identify which patients are appropriate for each post-acute care setting. The collaboration has reduced rehabilitation stays and increased the rate of discharges to home after elective joint replacement surgery.

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  • From Multiple Angles, Readmission Rate are Decreasing

    A variety of different measures all point to one inescapable fact: readmissions of Medicare patients at Massachusetts hospitals are steadily decreasing, according to a new MHA analysis. Statistics over the past decade show that Massachusetts hospitals, as well as hospitals nationwide, over the past decade at first had incremental improvements in readmissions before experiencing a significant dr...» Full Article

  • Brigham’s DASH Initiative Reduces Readmissions

    The percentage of patients admitted to a hospital with a mental health condition - either as a primary or a secondary diagnosis - is rising and often these patients experience delirium, alcohol withdrawal and suicide harm (DASH), which put them at an increased risk for higher-than-average readmission rates. In a new report in the July 2015 edition of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and ...» Full Article

  • Cambridge Health/Hallmark Health Reduce Readmissions

    Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) and Hallmark Health, in collaboration with Somerville Cambridge Elder Services and Mystic Valley Elder Services, are among the top performers in an innovative national pilot program to reduce hospital readmission rates. The four organizations, known collectively as the Mystic Valley Community-Based Organization, joined 71 other community-based organizations (CBOs...» Full Article

  • Milford Regional Medical Center – Preparing for the Workforce with Project SEARCH

    Milford Regional Medical Center adopted Project SEARCH, a national transitional program to teach valuable life and job skills.  Designed for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities entering their last year of high school, Project SEARCH provides internship placement based on the student’s experiences, strengths and skills, with the end goal being competitive employment within...» Full Article

  • Worksite Wellness Council Announces Employer Award Winners

    The Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts has announced the winners of its annual WorkWell Massachusetts Awards, recognizing employers that show outstanding performance in worksite health promotion, which includes programs to address workers’ physical and mental health, social connectedness, community involvement, and financial security. The application process for the awards asked empl...» Full Article

  • South Shore Medical Center’s Quincy Location is Now Open!

    Take a look at South Shore Medical Center’s new state-of-the-art facility, located in the heart of Quincy Center at 1495 Hancock Street. ...» Full Article

  • Cambridge Health’s Team Culture Reduces Infections

    Cambridge Health Alliance undertook an Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality-sponsored 15-month safety improvement program to reduce infections in the ICU at its Cambridge and Everett hospitals. The effort – involving an assessment of potential problems, increased staff education, use of proven best practices, leadership buy-in and more – resulted in a dramatic reduction in urinary tra...» Full Article

  • Cape Cod Healthcare Announces ‘Vision 2022’: New Patient Tower, EMR System

    Big news from Cape Cod Healthcare! Vision 2022, announced on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Cape Cod Hospital, includes a new 6-story patient care tower. Read more… ...» Full Article

  • Hebrew SeniorLife & Brown to Lead National Alzheimer’s Project

    Hebrew SeniorLife and Brown University have received a five-year $53.4 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to lead a comprehensive, nationwide effort to address Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. NIA is a division of the National Institutes for Health.  The funding will support the creation of a research incubator or “collaboratory”, bringing together 30...» Full Article

  • Kudos to Southcoast Health for Supporting Great Local Organizations!

    This is community healthcare in action. NEW BEDFORD — Southcoast Health has announced the recipients of its Community Benefits Impact Opportunity program grants for Fiscal Year 2019. These annual, competitive grants address unmet health needs in communities on the SouthCoast, according to a press release. “We are passionate about improving the health of our patients and our communities,...» Full Article

  • WWCMA- MA Hospitals Recipients of Five of the Six Gold Awards.

    Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts (WWCMA) announced the winners of its annual WorkWell Massachusetts Awards program aimed to recognize Massachusetts employers for their exemplary work in worksite health promotion. Five of the six Gold Award recipients were MA hospitals. As well as of only two Innovator Awards, one was a MA hospital. The Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts (WWCMA...» Full Article

  • Boston Medical Center Links Patients to Outpatient Addiction Treatment Services

    Caregivers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) have released a study outlining how the hospital’s Addiction Consult Service (ACS) may be making a significant dent in the problem of inpatients with substance use disorder (SUD) relapsing into addiction – and being readmitted – shortly after discharge. Numerous studies have shown that many inpatients (15% by one Massachusetts study) have an activ...» Full Article

  • Westerly Hospital Improves Patient Safety with Staff Education & Interactive Malignant Hyperthermia Drills

    Westerly Hospital--a 125 bed facility in Rhode Island that is part of the Yale New Haven Health System— has implemented a robust Malignant Hyperthermia education program designed to improve staff’s ability to recognize a Malignant Hyperthermia event and initiate appropriate, life-saving treatment; thereby, increasing patient safety and quality of care. Additionally, staff will be able to recog...» Full Article

  • Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s Journey to High Reliability

    Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s Bert Thurlo-Walsh, R.N., MM, CPHQ, Assoc. CQO/V.P., Patient Experience & Medical Staff Services and Dr. Janet C. Larson, Chief Quality & Experience Officer were invited to the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN) The Journey Ahead national conference in San Diego last month to present their hospital's ...» Full Article

  • RI’s Westerly Hospital’s Remarkable Infection-Reduction Performance Zero

    That’s the number of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) that Westerly Hospital in Rhode Island has experienced in both its ICU and medical/surgery units from 2015 to today. Its performance in containing catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) is equally as remarkable; in the hospital’s ICU and med/surg units there has been just one CAUTI, in the ICU, since 201...» Full Article

  • BID-Needham Sustaining Change: Creating a Hospital Culture of Safety

    In 2013, during a period of significant institutional growth, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital–Needham (BID–Needham) began an organization-wide effort to enhance its commitment to patient safety, employee engagement, and patient and staff satisfaction. As a result if its efforts, BID-Needham’s scores on the AHRQ Culture of Safety Survey rose to the 98th percentile rank within one year of im...» Full Article

  • RI’s South Country Hospital’s – Post-Cesarean Care Bundle Reduces Infections

    South County Hospital of Wakefield, R.I., in 2014-15 noted a spike in post-cesarean surgical site infections (SSI). An inter-professional team was established to review current practice and opportunities for improvement, and settled on a goal of “zero harm.” To meet the goal, the hospital made changes to its “Best Practice Care Bundle,” instituted provider and staff education, as well...» Full Article

  • Emerson Hospital Leverages Technology to Improve Patient Experience

    Leadership rounding at the bedside - the process where nurse leaders, administrators, and others talk directly with staff and patients about care and services - is a best practice in most hospitals, yet it comes with many challenges. It can be time consuming and difficult to standardize. When rounding is done using a pen and paper, how can care teams compile trend data in the department and across...» Full Article

  • RI’s Kent Hospital Advances the Culture of Safety

    Kent Hospital’s Good Catch Award is a way to demonstrate the hospital’s commitment to keeping patients, visitors and employees safe by rewarding those individuals who "speak up" to prevent harm and improve the culture of safety. The Good Catch Award creates positive incentives for providers and staff to report patient safety events. Kent Hospital’s staff strives continuously to enhance th...» Full Article

  • BID-Plymouth (formally Jordan Hospital’s) Great Success in Combating Infections

    Over six consecutive months in 2013, Jordan Hospital in Plymouth has not recorded a single catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) in its Critical Care Center- an impressive statistic that has required intensive, shift-by-shift persistence by caregiving teams throughout the hospital and a wholesale change in the hospital's culture. By eliminating incidences of CAUTI, a common infect...» Full Article

  • Lawrence General Hospital Boosts Safety & Satisfaction with Initiative Care

    There is always a lot of talk about the power of teamwork and successful teams yet there is little talk of what actually defines a great team. This 2011 article in Advance for Nurses discusses how nurses on a med/surg floor at Lawrence General Hospital improved patient safety through making hourly "rounds with purpose"....» Full Article

  • BID-Plymouth – (formally Jordan) Making Strides to Reduce Falls

    Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Mass., has undertaken an innovative strategy to deal with patient falls, which is a common problem that occurs just about everywhere that care is provided -- from hospitals to homes. People who are ill, recovering from surgery, on new medications - to name just a few of numerous reasons - often fall down, causing serious injury. It's a phenomenon that has caused all...» Full Article

  • SPHS – Mercy Medical Center, Implements a Program to Decrease Pressure Ulcers

    As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continue to provide less payment for hospital acquired pressure ulcers, increased demands are placed on nurses to reduce the number of patients who acquire these conditions. As pressure-ulcer incidence rates continue to rise, more hospitals are implementing intervention and prevention programs in order to combat pressure ulcer occurrence an...» Full Article

  • BID – Milton Hospital Reduces Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections

    Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs) are an often preventable healthcare- associated infection (HAI) common in hospitals across the country.  These infections can be a serious complication for patients, can increase the time they are hospitalized and add to the cost of care. On occasion, antibiotic treatment of CAUTIs can also pose potential health risks for the patient. PLAN: I...» Full Article