Affiliations

Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital

Presentation Notes

Quality Improvement poster presentation at Empowering Nursing Excellence: Recognizing the Value and Impact of Nurses, Advocate Health Midwest Region Nursing Research & Professional Development Conference 2023; November 15, 2023; virtual.

Abstract

Background: Patient immobility contributes to hospital-acquired complications and poor hospital outcomes. Despite its importance, patient ambulation is often missed with barriers that limit mobility and keep patients in bed.

Local Problem: Medical staff who work at a large suburban Level 1 Trauma Center voiced concerns that limited patient ambulation was contributing to longer length of stay and discharge to skilled care. Nursing units identified several perceived barriers to ambulation: lack of time and lack of staff.

Method: A nurse-led improvement team utilized a gaming strategy to engage and motivate clinical units to compete to improve outcomes. The game involved an eight-week football-themed “challenge” (February/March) to increase patient ambulation with a reward for the winner. The team measured room and hallway distances to support staff to document ambulation to track outcomes. The data populated by an Epic-based mobility dashboard to track percentage of eligible patients ambulated per day for each unit. Average weekly results were posted and celebrated to motivate teammates. Weekly results for the eight-week challenge were averaged to determine the overall winner. At baseline, unit staffing was above the national average, suggesting that staffing was adequate. The unit average for daily patient ambulation was 57%. Weekly unit ambulation percentages were provided. Units were challenged to increase percentages to 80% of eligible patients.

Results/Conclusions: All participating units were engaged in the project and showed improvement in percent of patients walking daily with an average increase to 64%. The winning unit came close to the 80% target by improving to an average of 73%.

Implications for practice: The team utilized a gaming approach and existing mobility resources to engage staff and promote ambulation in hospitalized patients. These findings will inform the next steps for mobilizing patients at a level that will impact hospital outcomes in the future.

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

11-15-2023


 

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Nov 15th, 12:00 AM

MOVE IT or lose it: Competing to improve hospitalized patient mobility

Background: Patient immobility contributes to hospital-acquired complications and poor hospital outcomes. Despite its importance, patient ambulation is often missed with barriers that limit mobility and keep patients in bed.

Local Problem: Medical staff who work at a large suburban Level 1 Trauma Center voiced concerns that limited patient ambulation was contributing to longer length of stay and discharge to skilled care. Nursing units identified several perceived barriers to ambulation: lack of time and lack of staff.

Method: A nurse-led improvement team utilized a gaming strategy to engage and motivate clinical units to compete to improve outcomes. The game involved an eight-week football-themed “challenge” (February/March) to increase patient ambulation with a reward for the winner. The team measured room and hallway distances to support staff to document ambulation to track outcomes. The data populated by an Epic-based mobility dashboard to track percentage of eligible patients ambulated per day for each unit. Average weekly results were posted and celebrated to motivate teammates. Weekly results for the eight-week challenge were averaged to determine the overall winner. At baseline, unit staffing was above the national average, suggesting that staffing was adequate. The unit average for daily patient ambulation was 57%. Weekly unit ambulation percentages were provided. Units were challenged to increase percentages to 80% of eligible patients.

Results/Conclusions: All participating units were engaged in the project and showed improvement in percent of patients walking daily with an average increase to 64%. The winning unit came close to the 80% target by improving to an average of 73%.

Implications for practice: The team utilized a gaming approach and existing mobility resources to engage staff and promote ambulation in hospitalized patients. These findings will inform the next steps for mobilizing patients at a level that will impact hospital outcomes in the future.

 

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