Hospital Performance Improvement: Healthcare Management Council Partner's Internal Collaboration Focuses on Pre-Sedation Pain and Cuts Costs By Decreasing Use of Propofol
Dixie Regional Medical Center cut costs and improved patient care by standardizing pain control and sedation in the ICU. Hospitals around the country are under tremendous pressure to cut costs as reimbursements and contributions decline. The Healthcare Management Council's KnowledgeWeb (http://www. HMC-Benchmarks. com/hospital/tools_kw. shtml) shares cost-cutting ideas generated at Partner facilities to help hospital managers keep their facilities competitive.
(PRWEB) January 22, 2004
Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, Utah found that increased use of Propofol in the Intensive Care Unit was due to the absence of a standard scale for assessing pain or sedation. Dixie hypothesized that they could sedate patients more effectively (and at lower cost) by focusing on pain issues prior to sedation.
In a joint effort between nursing, pharmacy, respiratory therapy and the ICU medical staff, Dixie created a pain protocol that objectively measures pain prior to sedation. Pain is assessed and treated first so that a patient who is in pain is treated instead of being sedated. Patients that are sedated also get a "sedation holiday" every 24 hours.
Since the adoption of this protocol the use of Propofol has declined dramatically, and the use of less-expensive Fentanyl increased. There was
Some concern that ICU length of stay for the patient may increase, but after 1 year of analysis, the length of stay in ICU was the same. The success of this protocol comes from interdisciplinary involvement. The process to develop the protocol took about 4 months.
This idea is part of HMC's collection of "Successes and Good Ideas,"
Articles highlighting successful performance improvement measures in health care. For more information on these articles and other HMC hospital networking events visit http://www. HMC-Benchmarks. com/hospital/ccs. shtml (http://www. HMC-Benchmarks. com/hospital/ccs. shtml).
Contact: Shelley Burns (SHBurns@HMCOnline. net)
The Healthcare Management Council, Inc.
Area: Hospital Performance Improvement
Web site: http://www. HMC-Benchmarks. com (http://www. HMC-Benchmarks. com)
Phone: (262) 242-9471
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