Case Studies
The American Hospital Association produces case studies on its member organizations across a wide range of health-care topics.
The Problem Vanderbilt's project didn't address a problem so much as it focused on a goal: to become the safest hospital in the United States. It decided to focus on medication errors, which harm at least 1.5 million patients in U.S. hospitals each year and cost $3.5 billion annually, the…
The Problem Inefficiencies in the fast track at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital have long been a source of frustration for ED leaders, staff and patients. Between December 2008 and February 2009, there were 1,759 fast track patients and the average length of stay was 122 minutes. ED leaders…
The Problem The average ED length of stay was 413 minutes (6 hours, 53 minutes). Fourteen percent of ED patients left before being seen, 40 percent of these had waited more than four hours. The hospital was losing about $7 million in revenue annually as a result. The Solution
The Problem Severe sepsis is one of the most significant challenges in critical care. Although Stony Brook's sepsis mortality rate of 26.7 percent was below the national average, reducing these deaths became a priority to enhance critical care. Additionally, Margaret Parker, MD, SBUMC's…
As a result of care coordination activities with Medicare patients, the opportunity to improve patient understanding and involvement in their health care and the realization that many of these patients needed additional support and information concerning medication management, led the organization…
At any one time, more than 100 patients are in this busy and complex ED. Historically, staff actively tracked patients with manual entry of a patient's location into a computer system. Keeping track of such a high number of patients in real time was clearly a challenge given the ongoing…
The Problem Pneumonia accounts for 15 percent of all hospital-associated infections. It is the second most common hospital-associated infection after urinary tract infections. The primary risk factor for the development of hospital-associated bacterial pneumonia is mechanical ventilation. Fatality…