Centegra Health Systems
McHenry, IL, Woodstock, IL
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"This is really an effective tool we have implemented. I love Skylight. Playing a leadership role in this has been rewarding for me, and the feedback we continue to receive from both patients and staff has been overwhelmingly positive." |
Core Measures: Flu & Pneumonia
Description
Centegra operates two facilities, one acute and one sub-acute care, with a total of 300 beds in McHenry and Woodstock, Illinois. The health system has more than 460 physicians on staff. Centegra's range of clinical services includes oncology, orthopedics, cardiology, and neurology.
Situation
When Centegra's nursinag chair governance council began to examine how existing core measures would impact future reimbursements, it became apparent that there was a significant opportunity to improve the administering of flu and pneumonia vaccines. It was determined that direct care nurses would be empowered and charged with driving this improvement and measurable change within the organization.
Strategy
Data was collected and analyzed, processes and procedures were examined, and nurse input was gathered.
One of the challenges identified was the difficulty of consistently screening patients for vaccinations both at admission and discharge. In certain cases, when screenings were conducted, appropriate follow up with the actual administering of the vaccine did not take place.
After determining that patient awareness regarding the importance of pneumonia and flu vaccination was low, a decision was made to use Skylight to help increase awareness and to improve core measures.
Approach
Patients were shown a special ticker message on the TV screen in their hospital room twice daily, at 11:30AM and 1:00PM. This timeframe was chosen because it was when admissions and discharges were most likely to occur and when family and visitors were most likely to be in a patient's room.
The content for this message served as a reminder. The text read; "Have you received your flu and pneumonia shots? Ask your nurse for more information."
Results
In less than one year, there was a 554% increase in the number of vaccines administered, along with increases in both patient satisfaction and nurse satisfaction at Centegra's McHenry and Woodstock facilities.
The improvements have been sustained, and the efficiency of daily nurse rounding has been improved. Because clinicians have seen firsthand the responsiveness of patients to messaging, there is a high level of interest in expanding the usage of Skylight's systems.
This support is also driven by the perceived ease of implementation and execution.
Skylight Profile
Skylight Healthcare Systems is the pioneer of Interactive Patient Systems; throughout the entire continuum of a patient's "journey of care"—before, during and after the inpatient hospital stay. Skylight engages and empowers the patient while addressing the hospitals' needs in efficiency, patient education, and patient satisfaction.
Skylight hospital partners are more efficient and have increased reimbursements resulting from improved HCAHPS results, lower readmissions and HACs, and meeting meaningful use requirements.M
Over 70 hospitals across the country have partnered with Skylight Healthcare Systems to see dramatic and sustainable results in their operations with corresponding increases in Medicare revenue.