Every day, City of Hope health-care professionals refer to quick listings of critical medical information about each patient to deliver the best possible care. That information — called a patient summary list — must be current and easy to understand so that clinicians can provide their care quickly and effectively.
As part of the Accelerating Care Excellence (ACE) program, a team of physicians, nurses and staff recently examined how City of Hope maintains these patient summary lists. Their aim: to ensure the lists always are up-to-date, clear and concise.
At the same time, through ACE, a second team of staff members continued development of an efficient layout and workflow for the new Northwest Pharmacy slated to open in February. Both teams reported their achievements on Jan. 14.
Patient summary list
When a physician consults on a case or nurses from different clinic areas provide care for the same patient, a patient summary list provides them with the necessary information to continue care consistently without interruptions. The patient summary list must contain information on a patient’s allergies, current medications, previous procedures performed and significant diagnoses.
 Anthony Kellogg, left, participates in a skit with Laura Crocitto. (Photo by p.cunningham) |
“City of Hope’s compassionate care addresses all aspects of a patient’s experience, which requires a team of physicians and clinical staff from a wide range of disciplines to work together,” said Laura Crocitto, M.D., clinical associate professor of surgery in City of Hope’s Division of Urology and Urologic Oncology and team leader focused on the patient summary list. “We were tasked with implementing a usable and accepted patient summary process that can be accurately maintained throughout the continuum of care.”
The team developed a process for physicians to record and maintain the information in the patient’s electronic medical record. The process ensures the information is continuously up-to-date and easily referenced. The team also developed a plan to roll out the electronic patient summary list throughout the medical center by this summer.
Northwest Pharmacy
The Northwest Pharmacy, a new addition to City of Hope’s pharmacy services, is scheduled to open in February. It will prepare drug treatments for City of Hope outpatients, expanding and enhancing the institution’s treatment capabilities.
“We have an opportunity to open the Northwest Pharmacy with a workspace designed for efficiency and an optimized workflow,” said Dan Seyler, administrative director of diagnostic radiology and team leader focused on the Northwest Pharmacy. “We want to hit the ground running on opening day and provide patients what they need without interruptions.”
The team’s work plan covered these steps:
- Establishing that the pharmacy will provide service to specific areas including the General Clinical Research Center and phase I clinical trials, which often require more complex drug preparations than standard therapies
- Creating a system to deliver treatment to the pharmacy’s specified service areas, instead of requiring clinical staff to pick up orders
- Developing an electronic system that enables pharmacy to clearly communicate the preparation status of a treatment to clinic staff
The next ACE events are scheduled for Jan. 31 through Feb. 4.
For more information, employees may visit www.coh.org/ACE. Questions about ACE also may be addressed to Tricia Kassab, R.N., B.S.N., M.S., vice president of quality and patient safety, at tkassab@coh.org.
Patient satisfaction keeps rising due to quality care City of Hope uses Press Ganey surveys to measure the success of its efforts to improve quality of care. The results demonstrate the impact of ACE. “City of Hope is filled with good people who are all dedicated to making a difference for people fighting cancer and other diseases,” said Virginia Opipare, City of Hope’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. - Overall patient satisfaction in the first quarter of 2011 is at 89.5 percent, compared to 86.3 percent when ACE began in 2009.
- Patient satisfaction in the registration area is 90.5 percent, up from 82.4 percent.
- Patients report 89.8 percent satisfaction with their blood lab experience compared to 84.6 percent prior to improvement efforts.
- Among surgery patients, 96.3 percent are satisfied with their experience in the pre-anesthesia testing clinic, up from 84.5 percent.
- For patients receiving infusion treatments in the 3B clinic, 89.9 percent are satisfied compared to 79.3 percent before ACE.
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