Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Accountability Boosts Results

When Poudre Valley Health System, based in Fort Collins, Colo., started using bedside medication verification, its medication scan rates were 55 percent. Improving drug labels increased accuracy to 70 percent. But initiating accountability reports was when the 417-bed system saw a ?huge improvement,? says Priscilla Nuwash, director of process improvement. ?When you can actually go to caregivers and show them their specific results?that makes a difference,? she observes. Scan rates jumped to 85 percent and now are about 94 percent. The rate is even higher after excluding nonscannable medications that patients bring from home. As a further improvement, PVHS currently is rolling out wireless barcode scanners. With such process improvement efforts, PVHS received the 2008 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. You can read the entire case study by visiting www.hpoe.org. For more information, contact Nuwash at pjn@pvhs.org.