Quality and Prevention Update
Ron Folwell
Director of Quality
Over the last few months, the West Valley leadership team implemented a new program designed to create focus and accountability around our actions to further the creation of a safe, high-quality organization. Under this program a new Patient Safety and Experience Team was created. This team meets weekly to review and discuss quality of care and safety concerns like core measure fall-outs, quality metric variances, and our patient experience data. As these concerns are discussed, action plans for timely improvement are developed and tracked through resolution.
Starting in January 2018, we will also be inviting our physician partners to participate in this working meeting. We will be developing and sharing a schedule that will identify topics for discussion to help service lines identify which meetings would be most beneficial to attend. As we share this schedule and meeting times, we hope you will plan to participate in these opportunities to share best practices, align processes and facilitate a standard approach to our quality, safety and patient experience challenges across the organization.
M/S and ICU Quiet Time
Nadine Jemmett
Intensive and Critical Care Unit Manager
On October 24, we implemented of the quiet time on ICU and Med/Surg. The times are 1400-1600 and 2300-0400. The lights will be dimmed on the units during this time and interruptions for the patients will be limited as much as possible.
Studies indicate that poor sleep quality or inadequate sleep time is associated with poor health outcomes. Sleep deprivation may play a role in ICU delirium, attention and memory deficits, poor thought processing and alterations in mental status. By instituting a designated quiet time (as we coordinate with other ancillary departments), we are hopeful that we can provide patients with much-needed uninterrupted sleep and rest and thereby improve their overall health status.