Here are five things to know about the changes being made at Christus St. Vincent.
1. While the hospital’s clinical performance has been on-par nationally, its patient experience scores have been lagging. According to the report, just 58 percent of patients would definitely recommend the hospital, compared to the 71 percent national rate.
2. So, Christus St. Vincent has started a new “clinician-directed performance improvement” project aimed at improving patient satisfaction and clinical quality. Lara Goitein, MD, a critical care and pulmonary medicine physician, is leading the project at the hospital.
3. Christus St. Vincent is using materials Intermountain has developed that helped the Salt Lake City-based system improve clinical quality and patient satisfaction and save money. Hospital staff are going through training sessions led by Brent James, MD, the chief quality officer of Intermountain, executive director of the Intermountain Institute for Health Care Delivery Research and lead instructor of its Advanced Training Program. The hospital is also paying some employees to dedicate time to quality improvement.
4. Already since June, the hospital has started 12 physician-led projects in 10 clinical areas. “The doctors are really engaged and excited. They have a new sense of engagement and empowerment. What they are saying is, ‘It’s about time someone asked us,'” Dr. Goitein told the Santa Fe New Mexican.
5. Some current focuses of the project include actively screening for medication errors, pain management for surgery patients and surgical site infections, according to the report.
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