As the director of nursing at Huntsman Cancer Hospital, Sue Childress shares her passion for improvement with a team of hundreds of nurses and HCAs. Learn how a cape and hat inspired Childress’ nursing career, and a passion for cultivating innovation.
General Surgery resident Josh Bleicher spent a year exploring opioid prescribing patterns in patients discharged after elective surgery. What did he find? We need a more patient-centered approach to opioid prescribing.
Thinking about teams differently did more than improve our inpatient discharge process. It gave everyone a shared vision: every single patient in the right bed, at the right time. Patients now leave the hospital earlier, all while monthly discharges have increased. Tracey Nixon, director of capacity management, shares how they did it.
Palliative care teams focus on treating the symptoms and stress of serious illness. Nate Wanner, Associate Medical Director of U of U Health’s Palliative Care Program, discusses how palliative care not only improves the quality of a patient’s life, but supports other clinical teams in one of the most challenging (and rewarding) parts of caring for people: having hard conversations.
Can improvement science help with New Year’s resolutions? Try using this handy SMART goal generator to create concrete, clearly defined SMART goals to set yourself up for success.
In 2011, Utah’s Intermediate Care Unit (IMCU) decided to improve patient safety through a new approach: engage the entire team in identifying and implementing the improvement. Clinical Operations Director Trell Inzunza shares the 4-step process that engaged the entire team to improve.
Waiting is such a firmly entrenched feature of health care that it is often expected. The solution starts with the team. Orthopaedic athletic trainer Ian Crossett details the 4-step, team-driven process that sends a message of respect for everyone: provider, patient and team.
Scope is a powerful tool when changing practice. Rather than trying to revamp in one large swoop, scoping an improvement down to palatable stages can overcome resistance and lead to meaningful results for future improvement cycles. Although new improvers may feel this approach delays impact, repeated improvement cycles often lead to sustained care transformation. Dr. Theophilus Owan demonstrated this principle in his quest to improve value by standardizing anti-thrombotic medications given to patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
A missed diagnosis can delay treatment or result in inappropriate treatment, causing unnecessary pain, suffering, and often financial hardship for our patients. Internist and hospitalist Peter Yarbrough helps explain why diagnostic errors happen with strategies to prevent them.
Ever wonder why your thoughtfully planned improvement fell flat with patients? Enter the University of Utah Health Patient Design Studio, a group of patients who meet monthly with improvers to provide actionable, direct and collaborative input on their improvement efforts.
General Surgery resident Riann Robbins is on a journey to reduce unnecessary tests. She recently shared her team's work to tackle ABG testing in critical care at the annual Department of Surgery Value Symposium. What did she learn? Be patient and persistent. As Seuss said, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
For patients, the electronic medical record offers unprecedented access, transparency, and an ever-present screen in their appointments. For providers, the EMR’s impact on workload, efficiency, and patient connection are sources of challenge. Accelerate’s Mari Ransco puts a spin on the doctor/patient relationship by asking her dermatologist Chris Hull to share how he balances the demands of Epic with personalized patient care.
