WHAT WE DID
Using the Campaign’s Hospitalizations Tracking Tool, we were able to identify the doctor who was sending the most residents out to the hospital. Some of our doctors felt nursing staff were pushing them to transfer residents. We talked with the medical director and educated the doctor group and provided written material to them on doing in-house diagnostics, labs, ultrasounds and x-rays. The medical residents got some education on re-hospitalizations during their geriatric rotations. We educated the nursing supervisor and nurses on this as well.
COMMUNICATION & ENGAGEMENT
Our intervention primarily involved medical directors and nursing staff. We involved medical directors, nurses and nurse aides during existing meetings, and used simple, educational print-outs. We repeated the same information over and over again.
Our medical directors’ practice is in-house five days a week. We can get our residents looked at frequently and have consistency of the same doctors taking calls on nights and weekends. Dietary and housekeeping staff are also reporting if they see changes in the residents.