A Culture of Quality
Chris Ruder, RN, vice president, Patient Care Services, talks about how putting patients at the center of our care equation has been key to our success.
Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our achievements and our ongoing efforts to improve the patient experience. We have adopted a culture of quality that puts patients first and delivers the best care available. Our goal is nothing less than to be the best hospital in the nation for patient care and service.
When you visit The University of Kansas Health System, you'll learn firsthand why our culture of quality sets us apart from other hospitals in Kansas and Kansas City. Request your appointment online or call us at 913-588-1227, or toll free at 844-323-1227.
Improving the patient experience
A health system's reputation is only as good as a patient's experience. That's why our health system nurtures a service-minded culture of courtesy, kindness and exceptional care.
Room service
Our patients are able to order from a room service menu customized to the therapeutic diet prescribed by their physician. They can order what they want, when they want, and the meal is delivered to them within 45 minutes. Each item is healthfully prepared and attractively served.
To ensure we're providing the best service possible to our patients, our Dietetics and Nutrition managers, supervisors and staff conduct meal rounds on every unit. They check on delivery times, staff interaction and whether patients are satisfied with the quality and presentation of their meals. They resolve any issues and communicate to our patients that we care and want them to have the best possible experience during their stay.
Valet parking
With our valet parking service, patients and family members can simply drive to the hospital's front lobby entrance. Courteous attendants take care of parking the car, then retrieve it upon request. For patients and visitors with handicaps or those who don't feel well, valet parking makes this task one less thing to worry about.
Spiritual support
Staff members are encouraged to surround each patient with compassion and personal advocacy. All are empowered to respectfully listen and empathize with the challenges our patients and their family members face.
Our nurses, social workers and spiritual care specialists have exceptional skills in this area. They often work as a team to provide patients and families with information and support without being asked for it. They're prepared to help people deal with even the toughest, most complex situations.
Customer service training
To help employees understand the challenges our patients and their loved ones face, staff members attend a day of customer service training when they join the health system.
More than 10,000 employees have participated in these free-flowing classes since they began in 1999. Sessions are designed to nurture our institution-wide culture of courtesy, kindness and exceptional care.
Staff members learn to empathize with our patients and their family members. They brush up on skills such as listening, affirming feelings and helping patients deal with their emotions. We're also empowered to become personal advocates and solve problems whenever possible on behalf of patients and loved ones.
Nurse liaisons
Families call our surgical nurse liaisons their lifelines. When a loved one is having surgery, our surgical and cardiovascular nurse liaisons act as go-betweens, updating family members on each patient's progress.
Nurse liaisons are experienced surgical nurses who travel between the health system's operating and procedure rooms and their respective waiting areas. Because of the complexity and length of many surgeries, physicians and staff cannot leave the operating rooms to regularly update concerned family members and friends.
Instead, nurse liaisons keep tabs on each patient and provide periodic reports and explanations to put family members at ease. Liaisons perform their critical role 16 hours a day, Monday through Friday.
Transforming Care at the Bedside
Transforming Care at the Bedside, or TCAB, is a framework for improving patient care on medical and surgical units. Initiated by the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in 2003, it encompasses four main elements:
- Safety and reliability
- Care team vitality
- Patient-centeredness
- Increased value
Any staff member can initiate and lead a TCAB program. Using a process called "small tests of change," progress is assessed daily. After the assessment period, an idea is adopted, abandoned or accepted as needed. Projects that fail are reassessed later and sometimes tried again.
Departments continually test new TCAB ideas. The most successful programs they have adopted include:
All staff members meet during a unit's shift change. The outgoing team informs the incoming team of any outstanding patient or safety issues. The safety huddle has also become a popular team-building activity where staff can briefly visit with each other.
Lights are dimmed and noise is minimized during certain hours of the day and night so patients can rest more comfortably.
Nurses suspected that they spent too much time going back and forth to supply cabinets. They discovered that in one year nurses walk the distance from Kansas City to Los Angeles and back or approximately 2,714 miles! Many departments now stock frequently used supplies at the bedside, saving steps and freeing more time to spend caring for patients.