The Department of Nursing at William Beaumont Army Medical Center is revamping the administrative process for inpatient services.
The change, which affects all inpatient services throughout the hospital, comes after an administrative review of the inpatient medical record processes identified several opportunities for improvement. The resulting changes streamline patient care, discharge, admission and transfers while standardizing procedures in daily operations.
Earlier this year, an internal staff assisted visit recognized variations in the staff's administrative actions, said Lt. Col. Billie Matthews, chief nursing officer for ambulatory care, Department of Nursing, WBAMC. Matthews found antiquated procedures and a need for employee training.
A Lean Six Sigma methodology working group, or "Tiger Team," engaged MSAs and supervisors in a process-improvement project in order to identify administrative variations among the MSAs along with organizing, developing and executing solutions to minimize inefficiencies.
"We developed continuity binders then critiqued the books looking for jargon, and other confusing terminology," said Robert Christensen, MSA, Inpatient Behavioral Health, WBAMC. "It did show improvement after the project."
The continuity binders outline standard operating procedures for MSAs in accordance with Army Regulation 40-66, Medical Record Administration and Healthcare Documentation.
According to Matthews, a native of Anchorage, Alaska, the implementation of continuity binders alone allows for easy turnovers from one MSA to another.
"Now any MSA can plug and play. When discharging, (MSAs) can just pull out the book and properly discharge the patient," said Matthews. "It is getting us to the correct end state if we do it this way every time."
Another challenge for the group was the frequent turnover rate of military personnel. The continuity binders will also serve as a tool to provide uninterrupted procedures targeting patient care for all incoming personnel.
"(Continuity binders) show not only the (civilian staff) but also military personnel what is done on a daily basis," said Christensen, a native of Salt Lake City. "It shows that we're dedicated in what we do, and highlights what an MSA does for the hospital and the impact of their responsibilities."
As a result of their actions, Christensen and other MSAs were recognized with certificates of achievements. After two weeks of implementing the new continuity binders the Patient Administration Division, responsible for ensuring accuracy in the medical records, reported a significant improvement.
"We saw this as an opportunity to better patient care at WBAMC," said Matthews. "This is just another way we're getting to YES (You deserve Exceptional Service Campaign)."
The YES campaign at WBAMC started in late 2015 and aims to provide patients the exceptional care they deserve.
Other developments within the Department of Nursing include implementing electronic tracking of medical records, eliminating unnecessary steps in the medical records process and employing transport teams to move records from one floor to another reducing MSA's time away from their areas of responsibility.
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