Owatonna Hospital kicks-off national program to engage nurses in leading efforts to improve quality
OWATONNA, Minn. 11/03/2010--Owatonna Hospital announces its selection and participation in a national program called Aligning Forces for Quality Transforming Care at the Bedside (AF4Q TCAB). Bringing together 23 hospital teams from across the state to lead improvements in the quality and safety of patient care, it’s a part of an innovative nationwide program led by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the nation’s largest philanthropy dedicated to improving the health and health care of all Americans.
TCAB is a new nurse-led hospital program that engages frontline staff to work together to identify, pilot, test and adopt new practices over an 18-month period. The program also aims to increase the energy and retention of nurses and frontline staff, engage and improve the patient’s experience of care and improve the effectiveness of the entire care team. Participating nurses will share their successes and lessons learned with other hospitals across the country.
"Nurses play a central role in ensuring the quality and safety of hospital care as they spend the most time with patients and their families," said Anne Draeger, RN, director of Patient Care at Owatonna Hospital. "As Minnesota and the nation look at improving care, it’s important that we provide local models of reforms that improve patient care, increase efficiencies and produce better outcomes for our patients."
It's all part of Aligning Forces for Quality, the Foundation's signature effort to lift the overall quality of health care in targeted communities and provide models for national reform. Since 2006, the state of Minnesota has been targeted by RWJF with resources to improve health care. MN Community Measurement was selected by RWJF to lead the local AF4Q alliance. In all, 17 regions of the country have been designated as part of Aligning Forces. In each region, a range of efforts to help doctors, nurses and hospitals improve quality – as well as engage consumers to be better patients – is being tested.
"By participating in TCAB, nurses at Owatonna Hospital are already analyzing their daily work flow, making important changes in how they deliver better patient care," said Suzie Hanson, RN, assistant patient care manager at Owatonna Hospital. "This program is allowing our staff to increase the amount of time a nurse spends at a patient’s bedside; help reduce falls, pressure ulcers and unanticipated deaths; and implement evidence-based care."
Since kicking off the TCAB program in early October, Owatonna Hospital has already seen several successes. For example, nurses documented how often they went to the supply room during an average shift. The data showed that by stocking the most often-used supplies in a patient’s room it provided more opportunity for the nurse to be with the patient. The second opportunity was posting nurse assignments by room on a whiteboard in the nurses station using red, yellow and green magnets to indicate their workload. This visual aid allows nurses who have more available time to assist other nurses with patient care, increasing time at the bedside.
The AF4Q TCAB program in Minnesota is being convened by the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA). Funded by RWJF, AF4Q and all of the regional TCAB efforts are coordinated by The Center for Health Care Quality at The George Washington University Medical Center School of Public Health and Health Services, which serves as the national program office for the Aligning Forces for Quality initiative. Local hospitals were asked to apply to participate in this hospital-based quality improvement component of the initiative.
About Owatonna Hospital
Part of Allina Hospitals & Clinics, Owatonna Hospital is a not-for-profit hospital committed to providing exceptional care and improving the health of the communities it serves in and around Steele County. Owatonna Hospital provides a full range of health care services including a birth center, emergency care, surgery and rehabilitation. Allina has built a replacement hospital in Owatonna, off Interstate 35. # # #
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