Bartlett Regional | HouseCalls | Fall 2017

“ALL THE STAFF were KIND AND RESPECTFUL ” “Made me feel like it was my home” “Registration was quick. She was very polite and professional. Answered all my questions!” —Continued from page 5 Patient safety is paramount “The best nurses I’ve seen ever! EVER!” A salute to excellence Quality and Compliance Director Denise Plano’s favorite reports are the shout-outs, her way of acknowledging colleagues out loud for extraordinary patient care. The next time you visit Bartlett, check out some shout-outs from the patients themselves. Comments, like the samples below, are on display in a glass case on the second floor near the critical care unit. “Very friendly and helpful staff ” Shout-outs 6 HouseCalls Fall 2017 “I really look at it as if I were the patient,” notes another member of the quality department team, Data Coordinator Tamiko Duncan. “The regular consumer does not come in asking, ‘What is the data?’ They want to know—is it clean, is it professional and will it hurt?” Over the past few years, Bartlett has been the proud recipient of Chasing Zero awards from the regional Mountain- Pacific Quality Health Association. The awards honor health care providers for lack of hospital-acquired infections. Of course, the fewer, the more impressive. “We have worked to prevent catheter- associated urinary tract infections, and we have gone over 400 days without that type of infection,” says past Infection Preventionist Kim Vermedal. “Practice and policy should match,” is a common utterance from Overson on his rounds. Meeting with a department head, he’s asked about post-patient fall debrief regulations. The manager has a printout of The Joint Commission’s statement on the issue, and asks Overson for his opinion. Sensing some tension between supervisor and staff, Overson acknowledges friction—and occasional gray areas. “My role can be to define where the mandatory starts and stops,” says Overson. “The main thing is to be objective.” “Nathan’s fantastic,” says Clinical Case Manager Lisa Wallace. “He has skin in the game but in a different way.” Daily check-ins In addition to Overson’s weekly rounds, the senior leadership team initiated a powerful vehicle for staff communication known as the daily huddle. Huddles take place mid-morning each workday, wherein department representatives gather for a quick check-in on any safety issues. A representative from the quality department reports on how many days it’s been since the last hospital-acquired infections. A patient safety success story