Volume Volume 23 23Number Number XX 7Month AprilXX, 5, 2012 2013
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE GOAL! Eliminating preventable deaths and preventable readmissions by July 1, 2014 is the key goal of Penn Medicine’s Blueprint for Quality and Patient Safety. Since beginning in July 2011, the initiative has led to reductions in both areas, but, as PJ Brennan, MD, cautioned, we’re not there yet. With fewer than 500 days left, the final push is on. Brennan, the Health System’s chief medical officer and a senior VP, compared the single-minded effort required to reach our goal to NASA’s goal in the 1960s to get a man on the moon by the end of that decade. “If you went to Cape Canaveral back then – or Cape Kennedy as it was called – or Mission Control in Houston and asked anyone what his job was, that person would reply: put a man on the moon. That was the mantra throughout NASA. “Eliminating preventable readmissions and mortality is our focus,” he said. “It will take everyone’s efforts to reach the goal.”
`` Earlier this year, PJ Brennan, MD, spoke at HUP’s “500 days and counting” event, highlighting how far we’ve come towards reaching our goal of eliminating preventable deaths and preventable readmissions by July 2014, but stressing the importance of staying focused on the goal to succeed.
Reaching Out Post Discharge While not every situation leading to a readmission can be controlled, eg, the impact of patient demographics, some can be resolved before they bring the patient back to the hospital. Working in partnership with an interdisciplinary team from both the in- and outpatient sides of cardiac care, the CICU developed a program to follow up with patients most at risk for readmission. This included those admitted for heart failure, with chest pain, for a cardiac intervention or with a VAD.
INSIDE Speaking with HUP’s Leaders............................2 10 Years of FACT Accreditation..............................3 Survey Says...............................4 Heartfelt Thanks........................4
Nurses called patients 48 hours after their discharge and then once a week for three weeks, asking key questions, eg, Do you have any complications? Are you able to get your medications? Do you understand your medications? “We specifically wanted clinical nurses with cardiac experience to make the calls because they are better able to answer patients’ disease-specific questions and they already have a relationship with the clinical provider,” said Leah Moran, MSN, nurse manager. The results have been impressive. Since program began in September, the unit’s 30-day all-cause readmission rate for heart failure has fallen by 35 percent. In fact, “we’ve had only two 7-day readmissions since starting the program.” (Continued on page 2)
Open Enrollment.......................4
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