Case Studies
The American Hospital Association produces case studies on its member organizations across a wide range of health-care topics.
Kennedy Health Decreases Sepsis BackgroundKennedy Health is an integrated health delivery system with hospital-centered campuses in Cherry Hill, Stratford and Washington Township, N.J. With more than 4,000 employees and nearly 1,000 medical staff members, Kennedy health offers inpatient and…
Broadens view of care delivery from hospital-based practice to the entire bundle episode (30-days post-discharge). This case study is part of the Illinois Hospital Association's annual quality awards. Each year, IHA recognizes and celebrates the achievements of Illinois hospitals in…
Hospital readmissions are costly for both patients and facilities. At the time of discharge, patients are often confused about how to care for themselves at home. Education at the time of discharge is most likely to be forgotten due to increased anxiety and stress. Avoidable readmissions also cause…
In May 2011, the hospital was experiencing an increase in mislabeled specimens among the ED and other inpatient nursing units. The lab department started to keep track of these mislabeled specimens and senior leadership was informed. After discussion, education was formed on mislabeling of…
Failure to rescue is the failure to recognize or act upon the patient's decline in condition resulting in death or permanent disability. In the United States between 2004 and 2006, 128 of every 1,000 patient deaths were attributed to failure to rescue. Review of literature indicates that…
Patient safety is the number one priority at this facility. After discussing medication errors at a patient safety meeting, it was evident that there were multiple factors contributing to the data presented. Pharmacy, medical/surgical directors, clinical education and IT met and developed a med-…
The project improved the pharmacy to hospital floor Rx process to decrease returns, optimize automated functionality and reduce overtime. The result was an improvement in communication between all related departments including pharmacy, nursing and support departments, reducing barriers to problem…
Patients discharged to home waited an average of 3.5 hours to complete all of the necessary steps on the day of their discharge, from the time the physician told them they were going home to the time they left the inpatient unit. The goal was to reduce this time to less than 2 hours, based on…
Utilizing Six Sigma's DMAIC model, this project looked at ways to decrease errors in the documentation of bill-only items in the hospital's main OR. Bill-only items are items not held in the hospital's inventory and are brought in for use by third-party vendors. Due to the lack of a…
This project aimed to reduce the OR turnover time for total joint cases. Baseline data showed it took 36 minutes with a standard deviation of 20 minutes to turnover a room from incision close to incision open of the next case. Although multiple improvements were identified, the project team elected…