UH Seidman Cancer Center Recognizes Several Nominees for Quality, Patient Safety Award
April 10, 2019
The 8th Annual Quality Award Reception was held on March 13, 2019 in Ruhlman Conference Center. There were 14 nominees for the 8th Annual Sally Ann Shipley Award that were honored for their contributions to Quality and Patient Safety.
Seidman had three nominees:
- 2nd runner up – Emily Moore, MSN, RN – Emily led Seidman 4 in utilizing the National Early Warning Signs (NEWS) Score Card. By scripting physician acceptance to SCC4 and assigning patients points based on a scoring tool, the staff of SCC4 are able to identify patients at higher risk for Code White and adjust monitoring requirements.
- Ryan Kazmierczak, R.Ph.,BCOP and Deanna Turns BSN, RN, OCN nurse manager at SCC St. John - UH St. John Seidman pharmacist with nurse manager, organized a multidisciplinary task force for pump issues involving chemotherapy therapy resulting in dangerous infusion errors. They developed a solution that standardized the infusion volume regardless of the milligrams of drug therapy ordered. This ensured therapy would finish in exactly 48 hours, safeguarding that the infusion was delivered at the prescribed rate
Other 2019 Sally Ann Shipley Award Nominees:
| Colin Beilman | Juanita Monteiro |
| Wes Bush | Megan NOrris |
| Maria Dunderman | Linda Scavnicky |
| Sandra Jenkins | Dr. Samer Soussahn |
| Natalie Kuchik | Molly Steidl |
| Terrie Lytle |
The winner was Dr. Samer Soussahn, who led a team of physicians, technologists, and IT staff in the effort to identify the sickest patients’ imaging exams among the many having a “STAT” exam ordered. Dr. Soussahn discovered that providers found the order priority “levels” in the EMR confusing for critically ill ER and inpatient STAT orders. He worked with clinical providers and the EMR team to provide clear and easy-to-understand options for ordering imaging exams. As a result of this EMR enhancement, the number of ordered STAT studies was reduced from 583 to 229 and the percentage of appropriately ordered studies that warranted a STAT priority increased from 70 to 95 percent.
1st runner up – Maria Dunderman RN, ACN, CNOR- Maria developed a process to track more than one surgical site infections (SSI) and match the infection cases to the specific autoclave sterilization load to assure that the SSI is not a result of the sterilization process. Maria built in a process to audit the system and reward compliance
As a special recognition, Kathy Gonzalez RN, MSN, MBA, CPHQ, Director of Seidman Quality, was recognized for all her contributions to University Hospital and Seidman Cancer Center over 33 of her 36 nursing years. Kathy retires on April 19, 2019.
Tags: