Patient Care Process

MinuteClinic operates walk-in, low-cost primary care clinics located within retail stores.

A presurgical safety briefing held by the operating room team before every procedure has virtually eliminated wrong-site surgeries, enhanced operating room staff satisfaction and perceptions of safety, and reduced nurse turnover.

The Billings Clinic, an integrated health system in Billings, MT, addressed its rising rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections by making infection control a top institutional priority and by creating a comprehensive package that combines adoption and monitoring of strict infection control protocols, active surveillance, training and education, and the solicitation and implementation of employee ideas through an approach known as “positive deviance.” This term refers to the focus on uncommon strategies that lead to positive changes and results.

The Hasbro Children's Partial Hospital Program—a medical treatment day program for children ages 6 to 18 years old who have chronic medical illnesses and emotional issues—has demonstrated sustained positive outcomes of treatment on several measures, including quality of life, emotional symptoms, and family beliefs about illness.

The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System uses a standard, system-wide process to reduce central venous catheter–related infections, with a focus on adhering to evidence-based standards and protocols related to inserting, maintaining, and removing the catheters.

The Re-Engineered Discharge project at Boston Medical Center standardizes the hospital discharge process through use of 11 separate but mutually reinforcing steps that health care professionals follow from patient admission to postdischarge.

A comprehensive hospital program that includes standardized protocols and various support systems to encourage adherence to these protocols led to an 81-percent decline in serious narcotic oversedations.

The Good Samaritan Society, a nursing home in Tyndall, SD, created a messaging system that enables residents to easily correspond with friends and family by e-mail without using a computer, which has enhanced residents' perceived quality of life.

Aurora Health Care spearheaded a community-wide medication reconciliation initiative, involving health care consumers, providers, pharmacists, and community stakeholders, to improve the accuracy of elderly patients' medication lists.

A diabetes disease management program provides remote education and eye screenings for low-income individuals in rural South Carolina, leading to increased eye examination rates, reduced blood glucose and cholesterol levels, improved self-management behaviors, and high levels of patient satisfaction.