Quality and Safety
Central Vermont Hospital is committed to providing our patients with the safest, highest-quality, most-satisfying care possible. A major part of our commitment to improving quality is our pledge to publicly share our performance data and provide clear explanations of what these measures mean.
Information about our performance in key areas helps you make good decisions about your health and health care. In this section we report information about the quality of the care we provide at Central Vermont Medical Center. These results show you how well we do in some key areas. We compare our performance whenever possible.
Recent studies show that consistently applied safety practices can have a dramatic impact on patient outcomes and, consequently, overall health care costs. Certain safety practices, some as simple as hand-washing, can have a dramatic impact on patient outcomes. Please see our Quality Council Scorecard for our metrics measured across the organization.
Quality Council Scorecard
Click on "Learn More" link to the left to see a list of measures and how we are doing compared to goals set internally. These goals are a reflection of national benchmarking data, whenever available. For questions about a specific metric, please contact Alison White, RN, MHA, Vice President for Quality and Chief Nursing Officer at (802) 371 5971.
Examples of Quality Metrics
Pressure Ulcer Prevention
Pressure ulcers are areas of damage to the skin and underlying tissue, usually occurring over bony areas.
The assessment of patients at risk for pressure ulcers is an important component of nursing care management. Not only do hospital-acquired pressure ulcers prolong the hospital stay but they also may contribute to serious complications and increased patient discomfort. Certain patient populations are at greater risk for pressure ulcers, including post-operative patients, overweight patients, and the frail elderly. Efficient application of preventive measures against pressure ulcers requires the identification of patients at risk. Upon admission, patients receive a full skin risk assessment and interventions (such as specialized mattresses and turning the patient frequently) are used immediately. Skin integrity is monitored by every nurse to ensure breakdown does not occur.
Patient Falls
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related visits to the emergency departments in the United States and the primary etiology of the accidental deaths in persons over the age of 65 years. The mortality rate for falls increases dramatically with age, with falls accounting for 70 percent of accidental deaths in persons 75 years of age and older. More than 90 percent of hip fractures occur as a result falls. Falls are usually the number one adverse event in any hospital. Approximately 2% of all admissions will fall.
At Central Vermont Medical Center, the nursing department uses a variety of interventions including:
- Fall risk assessment of all patients upon admission
- Frequent rounding to include identification of safety strategies related to the falls protocol
- Communication/ validation of activation of all alarms/ safety measures for identified fall risk patients during patient transitions
- Initiation of fall risk notice for each room to communicate fall risk to staff
- Real time review of fall incident reports
Medication Safety
Central Vermont Medical Center is committed to honoring the five “rights” of safe medication administration – right patient, right drug, right dose, right time and right route (e.g., pill, IV). This commitment, combined with the adoption of new prescribing and medication administration technologies, has led to significant decreases in medication errors.
The medication administration process involves the implementation of four elements – barcoding patients, biometric sign on for nurses and providers, barcoding drugs and using electronic medication administration record (eMAR) software to link the pieces together. This barcoding/eMAR system can significantly improve safety by providing a definitive list of all medications ordered for each patient, alerting medical staff about due or overdue medications, advising staff of potentially harmful drug interactions and confirming that the right medication is being administered at the right time, in the right dose, to the right patient, in the right way.
Smart Pump Technology
Intravenous medications are given through smart pumps to ensure that the correct dose is administered at the correct rate to the patient. Smart pumps have alerts that notify the nurse if the medication is being given too fast or too slow, or at the wrong concentration. CVH was an early adopter of this technology in October, 2008.