Pittsburgh, Oct. 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The DAISY Foundation, an organization dedicated to recognizing the compassion and skill nurses bring to patients and families every day, along with industry partner TeleTracking, announced the recipients of the Second Annual DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses in Patient Flow. The team award went to the nursing professionals from Children’s National Health System’s Emergency Medicine and Trauma Center (EMTC) [Washington DC], with Boone Hospital Center [Columbia, MO] receiving an honorable mention. The individual awards went to Kim Jefferson, Swedish Medical Center [Englewood, CO], and Colleen Porwall, St. Cloud Hospital [St. Cloud, MN].
The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses in Patient Flow recognizes individual nurses, as well as teams of care providers who are led by a nurse, for their hard work and commitment to ensuring patients have access to the right bed, at the right time, in the right setting. It also recognizes their commitment to delivering compassionate, high-quality care that is focused on the unique needs of individual patients and their families during this highly dynamic process.
“We are so pleased to be shining a spotlight on the important work that nurses do behind the scenes to ensure every patient receives the care they need and deserve,” says Bonnie Barnes, DAISY President and Co-Founder. “Our panel of judges recognized these nurses for their compassion, drive for results, leadership, change and resource management, and clinical knowledge.”
“As a nurse with more than 30 years of experience, as well as someone who helps health systems improve operations in order to open doors to more patients, the recognition of this type of work is so meaningful,” says Maria Romano, RN, BS, TeleTracking Clinical Advisor.
The team from the Emergency Medicine and Trauma Center (EMTC) at Children’s National was recognized for the changes they implemented in emergency department [ED] assessment and triage―resulting in a revised care delivery model to enhance both patient flow and the patient experience. The compassion, connection, and commitment of nurse leaders, in partnership with a multidisciplinary team, resulted in a 34% reduction in the amount of time it takes a patient to see a provider from the time they arrive at the ED, along with a 5% reduction in length of stay without a concurrent increase in 72-hour readmissions. At the same time, patient/family experience results incrementally increased as determined by the number of positive survey comments.
The honorable mention team from Boone Hospital Center improved the hand-off process between the emergency department and the nurses receiving inpatient admissions. The results, a 27% reduction in emergency department throughput time; an increased Quality of Care rating from 14.1% to 84%; as well as improvements in appropriate patient placement.
Kim Jefferson, along with her team at Swedish Medical Center, revamped the assignment process for both the emergency department and the post-anesthesia care unit [PACU], leading to improvements in intra-department communication. The Swedish emergency department sees over 200,000 patients each year, so finding ways to streamline workflows and address bed availability during times of high census is critical. The process improvements put in place by Kim and her team―including computerized physician order entry and the automation of the physician bed order in the electronic medical record to activate the order in the TeleTracking―resulted in a decrease of 46 minutes from the time it takes a patient in the emergency department to be admitted to the hospital. And that means that patient is receiving the care they need sooner―ideally leading to a better outcome.
The second individual awardee, Colleen Porwoll from St. Cloud Hospital, was recognized for her work in developing a framework for engaging patients and families in the discharge planning process upon admission. Positive results included the fact that 98% of patients said they felt prepared for their discharge and improvement in discharges by noon, going from 13% in July of 2016 to a high of 54% in June of 2017.
The recipients will be recognized in front of hundreds of healthcare professionals from around the globe at TeleTracking’s 2018 Client Conference, October 14 – 17, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa in San Antonio, TX.
About the DAISY Foundation
The DAISY Foundation was created in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died at the age of 33 from complications of an auto-immune disease [hence the name, an acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System]. Patrick received extraordinary care from his nurses, and his family felt compelled to express their profound gratitude for the compassion and skill nurses bring to patients and families every day. The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses celebrates nurses in more than 3,100 healthcare facilities around the world. For more information about The DAISY Award and the Foundation’s other recognition of nurses, faculty and students, visit www.DAISYfoundation.org.
About TeleTracking
For every hour patients wait for care, they face objectively worse outcomes. TeleTracking believes it is unacceptable that patients are not able to access the care they need, when they need it, due to operating inefficiencies and unnecessary cost barriers. Our mission is simple, to ensure no one waits for the care they need. Named one of Becker's "Great Places to Work" and a Pittsburgh Business Times “Corporate Citizenship Award” winner, TeleTracking delivers extraordinary outcomes that have been the subject of study by the RAND Corporation, and is the perennial KLAS Patient Flow Category Leader. To learn more about TeleTracking visit www.teletracking.com.