How a Surgery Center Achieved Streamlined Excellence with PHP [Case Study]
Amidst their state-of-the-art facilities and unwavering commitment to unparalleled patient experiences, Vivere-Audubon Surgery Center faced a...
6 min read
Performance Health Partners
June 5, 2023
Rounding in hospitals encompasses a range of practices that are instrumental in enhancing patient and employee safety. This article explores the tangible benefits of various types of rounding, shedding light on how healthcare organizations utilize rounding to detect and address potential risks. By conducting comprehensive assessments, these rounding practices allow healthcare professionals to proactively mitigate potential issues before they escalate into larger threats to employee and patient safety. Read on to learn more about the significance of rounding in hospitals and for real-life examples that illustrate rounding’s vital role in ensuring the well-being of patients and healthcare workers alike.
The path to improvement begins by acknowledging our blind spots.
This is the logic that guides us to schedule regular check-ups with our primary healthcare provider, to inspect the air pressure in our tires before taking off on a long road trip, or to routinely test the batteries in our smoke detectors.
This concept holds paramount importance in healthcare. Regular patient rounding illustrates this approach, rooted in the understanding that undiagnosed or latent issues could escalate into severe situations if left unchecked. Hospital safety rounds – or bedside rounds – therefore, serve as an essential component of a broader strategy aiming to uphold the highest standards of patient care.
When healthcare teams make the effort to observe whether systems and processes worked correctly through effective patient rounding, they are able to identify the warning signs of potential accidents and events such as:
Types of proactive patient rounds include:
Employee rounding is a proactive employee engagement approach in which healthcare executives or department leaders personally interact with staff to gather valuable insights, not only brings to light what is and isn’t working in an organization.
Examples of employee rounding include:
Rounders might ask the following questions during employee rounds:
Frontline workers are the eyes and ears of every healthcare organization. By personally discussing the day-to-day issues faced by these employees, leadership gains a deeper understanding of existing concerns, paving the way for effective solutions to be implemented.
Employee rounding in healthcare is also the single most effective tool for making employees feel heard and appreciated, which is becoming increasingly more important in today's dynamic and ever-evolving healthcare space.
Other benefits of employee rounding include:
Moreover, when leaders of an organization actively demonstrate their willingness to listen and seek feedback from employees – and follow up on corrective actions taken – it creates an environment where employees feel empowered and comfortable expressing their thoughts and concerns.
As healthcare has evolved to focus more on patient-centered care, environment of care (EOC) rounding has become an increasingly useful tool for improving patient and staff engagement in safety promotion. According to the Joint Commission, “protecting patients from harm involves more than safe treatments and procedures. We must also consider where patients receive care and minimize risks associated with the physical environment.”
EOC rounds play a critical role in ensuring the safety of patients and staff and optimizing the overall operations of a healthcare facility. They can uncover issues such as:
Every action item on an EOC rounding checklist should be clearly defined and have a specific person assigned to the task to ensure that it is properly completed. An EOC rounding checklist might ask questions such as:
Hand hygiene – a simple yet crucial aspect of healthcare –often falls short of the standards. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research shows that on average, healthcare personnel clean their hands fewer than half of the times they should.
Environmental factors influencing noncompliance with hand hygiene protocol vary between organizations and can include lack of soap at handwashing stations, lack of training around hand hygiene protocol, or lack of sufficient number of sinks.
Hand hygiene rounding is a dedicated approach designed to identify these contributing factors to noncompliance, thereby guiding strategic decisions for improvement. Below are some instances of hand hygiene rounding:
To optimize the effectiveness of rounding in hospitals, organizations can leverage digital tools to streamline the process. Implementing a rounding software optimizes the rounding experience, saving time, and maximizing the impact of feedback for continuous improvement.
Today’s rounding software like Performance Health Partners’ streamline efforts to effectively round on patients and employees, manage risks, and make the delivery of care as efficient and convenient as possible. They achieve this by ensuring standardization through a structured framework for rounding in hospitals, maintaining consistency across different departments and locations.
For instance, the use of real-time data dashboards removes the need for cumbersome manual data compilation and analysis. Rounding software allows organizations to assess performance, input rounding data, and devise immediate action plans with only a quick glance at the screen and a few clicks!
Rounding software also enables teams to conduct assessments quickly and conveniently, as technology facilitates rounding processes by standardizing templates, including checklists. Then, based on the collected data, risks can be immediately identified and classified.
Should a provider identify an issue while rounding, a structured incident management system makes incident reports available via computer, tablet, or smartphone. Once a report is submitted, the system then triggers an automatic workflow to ensure the appropriate contacts are notified in real time. If the issue isn’t resolved within the designated time frame, the software automatically escalates the event.
Rounding software like Performance Health Partners’ not only provide streamlined efficiency and enable faster issue resolution, they also improve patient outcomes. According to a 2018 KLAS Research report, survey respondents noted several key meaningful outcomes achieved with using technology to round on patients. Among the most common were improved patient satisfaction, immediate feedback and recovery, accountability/compliance, and better collaboration among care teams.
Implementing rounding and incident reporting software is an integral part of establishing an effective patient safety culture.
With Performance Health Partner’s digital rounding solution, healthcare organizations can take action against the harmful effects of safety incidents, while focusing on improving the quality of the care experience. Connect with our team to learn more.
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