UNCH 2020 Nursing Annual Report - 17

A Letter From Dr. Madigan
Special Feature
Magnet® Stories
Staff Recognition Awards
Accomplishments
Magnet® Stories
The Quality Liaison role was designed to assist
with quality initiative projects while supporting
front-line personnel - RNs and NAs - in giving
compliant and consistent patient care. When
developing this position, there were two main
objectives. The first was improving documentation
compliance in EPIC e-charting. The second was
providing support for reducing hospital-acquired
conditions: central line-associated bloodstream
infections (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary
tract infections (CAUTI), pneumonia (HAP),
unit-acquired pressure injuries (UAPI), and
decreasing falls. The main intervention for this
project was the transition of a Quality Liaison role
from obtaining bedside vitals and making hourly
rounds to auditing charts, maintaining patient room
safety, performing catheter care, coordinating
turns for at-risk patients, and reinforcing patient
education on select topics (e.g., use of CHG wipes,
falls precautions, oral care).
With the use of a paper rounding tool in
conjunction with online data entry, the Quality
Liaison continues to be able to accomplish these
goals on 53 patients daily. When deficiencies
are found, the Quality Liaison leaves a " Check
Me Out " sign on the door to communicate to the
RN areas needing attention. The Quality Liaison
collects data on a daily basis which is sent to an
analyst to measure impact. In six months, this role
has shown a marked decrease in the number of
CLABSIs from 12 to eight, HAPs from four to two,
UAPIs from 15 to six and falls from 40 to 26.
Patients with cancer diagnoses are at especially
high risk for hospital-acquired conditions
because of impaired levels of physical function,
physiological changes, and intense treatments.
The Quality Liaison role was designed
to assist with quality initiative projects
while supporting front-line personnel -
RNs and NAs - in giving compliant and
consistent patient care.
2020 Nursing Annual Report | 17
Mallory Lexa
This innovative role has been an opportunity
to strengthen the care provided, lower unit
infection rates, and decrease patients' hospital
comorbidities in a cost-effective way while
supporting the culture of quality improvement
and improving patient outcomes. In addition to
improved outcomes and cost savings, unit level
survey results demonstrate that implementation
of this role has contributed to increased job
satisfaction for both RNs and NAs.
UNCH 2020 Nursing Annual Report

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