NUHEALTH LAUNCHES IMPORTANT PATIENT CARE INITIATIVE TO REDUCE MEDICAL ERRORS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2011
PRESS CONTACT:
Shelley Lotenberg
shelley@numc.edu
516-572-6055
NuHealth Launches Important Patient Care Initiative to Reduce Medical Errors
EAST MEADOW, NY…A new pilot project to reduce medical errors and improve communication was launched today on the telemetry cardiac services floor at the Nassau University Medical Center. The project called NuSteps incorporates TeamSTEPPS, a team performance optimization framework to enhance patient safety that was originally developed by the Department of Defense with collaboration by AHRQ, a federal agency for health quality. Each year, about a hundred thousand deaths are attributed to medical errors and there are more than a million incidents with an associated billion dollar cost throughout the United States.
“Patient safety continues to pose a major health challenge all across the United States,” declared President and CEO, Arthur A. Gianelli. He added that “by reducing errors we also reduce costs and improve quality; and by shaping attitudes and increasing knowledge to foster a safer patient care, we will save even more lives”.
“We recognize patient care as having four key components, or steps” mentioned Dr. Sanjay Doddamani, chairman of the department of cardiology – “namely, Step 1 is the arrival phase when the patient is first admitted. Step 2 is the testing and treatment phase which is what most patients believe to be the actual hospitalization. In Step 3, there is the discharge readiness phase that focuses on making sure the patient has increased their activity, mobilization and an important education component. Finally, Step 4 is the transitional care phase which secures the hand-off to the team of providers outside the hospital including doctors, home care agency nurses if needed, medication prescriptions and outpatient physical therapy.” “Each part of this is geared towards increasing communication and avoiding medical errors” added Doddamani, who came to the Nassau University Medical Center over two years ago, as part of a regionalized services agreement between the North Shore-LIJ Health System and NuHealth.
TeamSTEPPS has tools and strategies that bring staff to share information and improve care. “An example is the daily huddle that takes place half-way through the day,” clarified Lorinda Bauer, clinical director for cardiac services. “Nurses participate in a briefing session, then huddle midway through shift and debrief to enhance communication at the end of shift. There are feedback, assertion; cross-monitoring and a whole host of tools that improves the communication,” added Ms. Bauer.
The executive leadership lends its full support to this important patient safety initiative, declared Kathy Skarka, CNO of the NuHealth System. “We are piloting this on one floor to hope to expand this throughout the hospital very soon”.
Nurse Manager, Carol Scotti, added “The staffs of 11 West and I are looking forward to the positive impact this initiative will have on our patient outcomes.” Both Ms. Scotti and Janice Pateres, nursing director for medical-surgical units, have worked tirelessly to in-service the nursing staff.
“The doctors too will be a vital part of this initiative”, mentioned Dr. Steven J. Walerstein, executive vice president for medical affairs and medical director at the NuHealth System. “Our goal is to provide the safest care to all our patients by improving and structuring the way doctors and nurses discuss patient care,” concluded Dr. Walerstein.
ABOUT NUHEALTH
NuHealth is a Long Island health care organization delivering essential medical care and disease and lifestyle management to everyone at every stage of life. Also known as Nassau Health Care Corporation, NuHealth is a public benefit corporation managing the operations of Nassau Medical Center, A. Holly Patterson Extended Care and a network of Family Health Centers that bring primary and specialty care out into the community. By emphasizing wellness, cultural sensitivity and collaborative efforts with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, NuHealth is working to make good care more affordable and easier to access.
For more information about NuHealth or its Centers of Care, visit www.nuhealth.net.
