Cooley Dickinson Hospital (CDH) is committed to the quality and safety of the care we provide. We continuously improve our care processes and strive for excellent outcomes for our patients. We welcome the opportunity to publicly report our progress.
PRESSURE ULCERS Cooley Dickinson Hospital has implemented a program to reduce facility-acquired pressure ulcers. When facility-acquired pressure ulcers occur, the circumstances are reviewed extensively and we use the resulting data to improve our future care. Quarterly pressure ulcer prevalence studies are also conducted to provide further evaluation of the program.
FALLS Cooley Dickinson Hospital has developed an effective plan to reduce patient falls, especially those resulting in injury. A fall risk assessment is carried out on every patient on admission and each nursing shift. The clinical staff and nursing supervisors round frequently to identify patients with increasing fall risk and implement fall prevention strategies. When falls occur, a multidisciplinary evaluation is conducted to identify causative factors and make modifications to the patient’s care plan so additional falls do not occur. Cooley Dickinson has a multidisciplinary falls committee that meets monthly and strives to continually improve our fall prevention program.
HEART ATTACK Cooley Dickinson Hospital consistently meets national and state benchmarks for heart attack care. We review every case in which we did not achieve 100% performance of best practices and use these opportunities for the basis of quality improvement initiatives. Cooley Dickinson participates in a regional program for rapid evaluation of heart attack patients and, if indicated, patient transfer for cardiac catheterization intervention.
HEART FAILURE Cooley Dickinson Hospital participates in the American Heart Association’s Get with the Guidelines initiative and received our sixth gold award for heart failure care in 2015. We review every case in which we did not achieve 100% compliance with evidence-based care guidelines. We are currently focused on post-discharge follow-up to help our patients succeed in home management of their condition and prevent readmissions.
PNEUMONIA Cooley Dickinson Hospital consistently meets national and state benchmarks in the delivery of best practice care to pneumonia patients. We have put systems in place to provide flu vaccination for both our patients and hospital staff each year to prevent the spread of this illness.
SURGICAL CARE IMPROVEMENT/SURGICAL INFECTION PREVENTION We have consistently exceeded national benchmarks in surgical best practices aimed at eliminating hospital-associated infections and preventing cardiac and venous thromboembolism (blood clot) complications in our surgical patients. Cooley Dickinson screens surgical patients for Staphylococcus aureus, a common germ that can cause surgical site infections. We have also added the use of antiseptic skin wipes prior to surgery to further reduce the risk of infections. To ensure that the operating room is sterile, we disinfect with ultraviolet light, a new technology for infection prevention.
STROKE CARE Cooley Dickinson Hospital is designated as a Primary Stroke Service in Massachusetts. We also participate in the National Inpatient Quality Measures, American Stroke Association’s Get with the Guideline program, and the Center for Disease Control’s Paul Coverdell program, which all support evidence-based care for stroke patients. CDH received the American Stroke Association’s 2015 Get with the Guidelines Gold Plus Performance Achievement Award. This award honors the hospital for implementing best practices for stroke care and ensuring stroke patients receive the highest quality care according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations. No cases met the measure for Thrombolytic Therapy during this reporting period. To insure rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke Cooley Dickinson Hospital has implemented direct transfer to CT scan for all suspected stroke patients in 2015. Early scanning speeds up evaluation by our emergency room staff and help them identify and treat a stroke quicker.
BLOOD CLOT PREVENTION AND TREATMENT Blood clots are a significant complication that develops in hospitalized patients. Cooley Dickinson has implemented a hospital-wide system to ensure all inpatients undergo a blood clot risk evaluation upon admission and, if at risk, receive effective prevention. The number of cases for Blood Thinner Risk Monitoring was too few to report in this time frame.
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| 30 November 2015 |
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