Nurse-led initiatives in Indiana saved their organizations more than $5.2 million while improving patient outcomes, according to preliminary results from a 16-month training program launched in 2012 by the Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN).
The AACN developed the AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy to help improve hospital-based nurse leadership and innovation better patient care at a lower cost.
The preliminary program rollout featured 42 hospitals across six regions of the country.
Aside from the financial savings, the study reported these clinical successes:
• Stays in the pediatric intensive care unit decreased by half a day
• Scores for parent satisfaction rose 20 percent
• No new complications occurred due to ventilator-associated infection
• Mouth and nose ulcers caused by pressure from hospital devices declined 50 percent
• The number of days ICU patients spent using mechanical ventilation lessened by 0.44 days
• Patient falls were halved
• Pressure ulcers were overall reduced by more than 60 percent.
The American Association of Critical Care Nurses reported that this saved the average hospital $406,000.
In addition, the AACN said heel ulcers were reduced by 51 percent, producing an average savings per hospital of $506,000. And medical errors fell 16 percent, falls with injury dropped 21 percent and the use of restraints was reduced by 24 percent; those measures produced a combined savings of about $231,000 per hospital.
“Direct care nurses at IU Health serve as evidence-based lean change agents, and our AACN CSI Academy participants have become expert in designing, implementing and evaluating nursing and patient care innovations,” said Linda Q. Everett, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, FAAN, executive vice president and chief nurse executive at Indiana University (IU) Health, in a news release. “They gained confidence and competence to articulate the value of nursing and demonstrate its impact.”
Word about the CSI Academy is getting around, with hospitals around the country participating.
AACN has invested $1.25 million to fund CSI Academy implementation, which is ongoing. Hospitals from New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and North Carolina are participating.
Projects include working to improve teamwork and communication while taking steps to prevent pressure ulcers, pneumonia from ventilators, delirium, urinary tract infections from catheters, bloodstream infections associated with central lines and injuries due to falls.
“We saw it as an opportunity to grow nursing practice in the critical care area and put the ability to make a positive change in the hands of staff nurses at the front line,” Chris Huot, BA, RN, nurse manager, critical care, at Penn Medicine-Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, told nursezone.com.
