Citation

Ontengco JB. J. Trauma Nurs. 2019; 26(1): 50-58.

Affiliation

Division of Trauma, Department of Surgery, Maine Medical Center, Portland; and University of Southern Maine, Portland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Society of Trauma Nurses)

DOI

10.1097/JTN.0000000000000415

PMID

30624382

Abstract

This quality improvement project was undertaken to improve trauma service referral compliance to an existing home-based elderly fall prevention program through the implementation of a daily management system (DMS). Operational excellence, a hospital-wide initiative, provided the foundation for improvement efforts. This initiative went through a series of 5 plan, do, study, and act (PDSA) cycles and demonstrated significant improvement in referrals from 0% to 100%. Compliance with referrals after the retirement of the key performance indicator remained high at 95.5%.

RESULTS from this project provided support for the framework set forth in DMS and PDSA improvement methodologies as a feasible option to implement quality and process improvement projects. Further study in this area is warranted.

Language: en