CSI Summary
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CSI Project
Reducing Falls and Increasing Patient Satisfaction In Patients 65 and Older
Ochsner Hancock, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
CSI Presentation
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CSI Toolkit
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Project Topic:
Age friendly care using the 4 Ms of healthcare for those patients over the age of 65
Hospital, City and State:
Ochsner Hancock, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Unit:
- Comprehensive Care Unit
CSI Participants:
- Carol May, MSN, RN, GERO-BC
- Tina Gee, LPN
- Melissa Cowan (Lisa), ADN, BC-RN
- Jackie Lupo, MSN, RN, RN-C, OB, CPXP
Project Goals/Objectives:
- 25% reduction in inpatient falls
- 25% improvement in patient satisfaction scores
- Increase Healthy Work Environment (HWEAT) True Collaboration score to >5
Project Outcomes:
- ‘All’ falls decreased 33%
- Falls in ‘patients over 65’ decreased 50%
- Improved patient satisfaction scores 21%
- Healthy Work Environment (HWEAT) True Collaboration score decreased from 4.51 to 3.64
Project Overview:
The Comprehensive Care Unit is a combined-acuity unit with 22 beds. More than 50% of admitted patients are over the age of 65, highlighting a significant need to better address the healthcare requirements of older adults.
Hancock County was one of the first communities to receive the “Certified Retirement Community” designation and remains one of the state’s top retirement destinations. Ochsner offers the Golden Opportunity program, designed for individuals over the age of 50. The program’s vision is to inspire healthier lives by focusing on wellness, social engagement, education, comfort, and safety. Despite the growing older adult population, there has been no current education on age-friendly healthcare within our unit. To address this gap, we initiated the 4Ms framework, which focuses on aligning care with the patient’s personal goals (What Matters), monitoring and simplifying medications to reduce the risk of errors (Medications), encouraging movement to maintain physical function (Mobility), and assessing and supporting cognitive and mental health (Mentation).
We implemented a structured approach by focusing on one of the 4Ms each month, educating staff and celebrating successes along the way. Our initial goals were to decrease inpatient falls, improve patient satisfaction scores, and enhance the HWEAT true collaboration scores.
Through successful interventions and the support of virtual nursing, we met all goals except for the true collaboration scores. Moving forward, we plan to integrate the 4Ms framework into the orientation process, incorporate age-friendly healthcare into virtual admission and discharge workflows, embed age-friendly educational videos into patients’ charts, and expand Ochsner’s Golden Opportunity program across all Ochsner institutions.
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Disclaimer
The AACN CSI Academy program supports change projects based on quality improvement methods. Although CSI teams seek to ensure linkage between their project and clinical/fiscal outcomes, data cannot be solely attributed to the project and are estimations of impact.