The Microsystems initiative at Cooley Dickinson is a way of using the expertise of our front-line staff to make changes. These changes impact how care is delivered to our patients.
As a patient or visitor, the work of Microsystems will be invisible to you. Yet behind the scenes, staff are focused on evaluating each process and suggesting ideas for improvement.
With Microsystems, our goal is to support every employee in taking exceptional care of patients and families, while continuously improving the care we deliver. Our employes comprise teams that are empowered to make improvement decisions based on scientific data and best practices.
The Microsystems process comprises the fabric of our entire organization. The work of each team is ongoing, and we regularly add new teams. You can read about the various initiatives below.
Behavioral Health - West 5
• Improve patient safety by eliminating patient falls while in the hospital.
• Improve patient satisfaction by reducing sources of noise and volume of noise on the unit.
• Improve patient satisfaction by improving staff’s response to patient’s requests.
• Improve the information provided to patients at the time of discharge so that patients do not need to call the hospital to get questions answered after they have gone home.
Case Management/Readmmission
• Decrease frequency of patients being readmitted to the hospital with the same diagnosis, within thirty days.
• Improve patient satisfaction with the discharge process by ensuring that the patient/family feel ready to care for themselves at home.
• Improve the efficiency of the discharge process by ensuring that Nursing homes have the necessary information to care for the patient once they arrive.
• Improve patient safety by reducing the average patient length of stay in the hospital.
CDPA - Affiliated physician practices
• Reduce time in accounts receivable.
• Improve physician satisfaction with the billing processes.
Centralized Scheduling and Registration
• Implement systems that allow one-stop scheduling by physicians and patients of outpatient appointments
Childbirth Center
• Improve patient satisfaction by increasing the frequency that scheduled C-Sections start on time.
• Improve patient and family satisfaction by improving the quality of the bed that is provided for visitors who stay over night with mother and baby.
• Improve patient satisfaction by making pre- and post-hospital phone calls to the mother to ensure that she is prepared and that her questions are answered.
Critical Care Unit
• Improve safety with the medication administration process.
• Improve patient satisfaction by improving staff’s response to personal needs, particularly during the admission process.
• Improve efficiency and allow the nurse to remain at the bedside more by bringing nursing supplies to the bedside.
Environmental Services
• Improve cleaning and storage process for patient recliners.
• Improve Environmental Services staff training. First training program up for improvement is training on cleaning and infection prevention of blood born pathogens.
• Improve bed turnover time by decreasing time from when patient is discharge and the bed is ready for the next patient, while at the same time increasing actual cleaning time in the patient room.
• Improve patient satisfaction with the quality of patient room cleaning. The team implemented a ten-step cleaning process.
ER/Emergency Services
• Reduce the amount of time patients spend in the ER by improving the triage and registration process
• Improve patients’ satisfaction with their experience in the ER by reducing unnecessary and annoying noise.
• Increase safety in the ER by requiring all patients be dressed in appropriate hospital attire before being seen by a physician, so that thorough examinations are possible.
Employee Safety
• Reduce staff injuries related to moving patients.
• Reduce staff injuries related to slipping.
Human Resources
• Improve the processes by which students and interns educational experiences are scheduled and managed throughout their experience with Cooley Dickinson.
Information Systems
• A new team; initiatives to be determined.
Medical/Surgical Unit - West 2
• Increase availability of hospital beds for new patients by discharging patients who are ready to go home at an earlier time in the day.
• Improve patients’ satisfaction with their experience as an inpatient through the use of hourly “Focus on Comfort” visits by the nurse or nursing assistant, with each patient.
• Improved Discharge instruction sheets sent home with patients so that patients, Primary Care Physicians, and Nursing Homes have better and more thorough information, for continued care after hospitalization.
Medical/Surgical Unit - North 3
• Reduce hospital acquired infections by: a) improving the process for exchanging isolation carts, b) educating patients and visitors on their role in helping to prevent the spread of infections, and
c) improving processes for cleaning on-unit medical equipment
• mprove patients’ satisfaction with their experiences as inpatients through the use of hourly “Focus on Comfort” visits by the nurse or nursing assistant, with each patient.
Nutrition Services
• A new team; initiatives to be determined.
Perioperative Services/Surgery
• Improve patient safety by implementing the Surgical Safety Checklist that was designed by the World Health Organization.
• Improve patient satisfaction and efficiency of services by reducing turn-around time between surgical cases so that surgeries start and end on time.
• Improve patient satisfaction by providing better information about what actually occurred during the patient’s surgery.
• Improve patient satisfaction by improving the quality of the education provided to patients and families about how to care for themselves at home after surgery.
• Improve the efficiency of the pre-operative nursing and anesthesiology assessment process.
Senior Leadership
• Improve communication processes with directors, managers, and staff so that there is more transparency and flow of organizational information.
Stroke
• Improve safety by improving overall care processes.
• Improve inpatient education so that patients are able to prevent or identify quickly another stroke.
• Improve staff and physician education about caring for stroke patients and performing continual assessments using the National Institute of Health’s Stroke Scale tool.
• Improve community education and outreach so that potential patients are able to understand their risk for stroke, identify stroke symptoms early, and get to the hospital quickly so that they have the best opportunity for preventing permanent brain damage.
Telemetry
• Improve patient satisfaction and safety by improving staff’s responses to the patient’s pain needs.
• Improve safety by reducing patient medication omissions.
• Improve efficiency of shift report by performing one-on-one report at the patient’s bedside.
• Improve patient safety by eliminating falls while in the hospital.
VNA & Hospice of Cooley Dickinson
• Improve safety and outcomes for all patients.
• Reduce waste and cost related to patient care supplies.
• Improve patient satisfaction by improving and smoothing the initial referral intake process.
• Improve patient satisfaction so that patients make us their first choice if care is needed again.