St. Patrick's Home for the Aged in New York City partnered with Medline — a clinical solutions provider serving the healthcare industry — to engage staff in an educational initiative to improve quality and patient safety.
The program — dubbed INTERACT eCurriculum — provides online training and educational resources to long-term care facilities. The program can help reduce avoidable acute care transfers by as much as 24 percent, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Sign up for our FREE E-Weekly for more coverage like this sent to your inbox
In less than one year, the entire staff at St. Patrick's has completed the educational program. This includes nurses, certified nursing assistants, rehabilitation staff, housekeeping and administration.
"Our residents are like family and we don't want to send anyone unnecessarily to emergency rooms," said Joan Deignan, staff educator at St. Patrick's. "The role-specific modules were a natural fit with our mission to bring compassion, interest and care to everything we do. Medline helped us every step of the way so we can continue delivering high quality, person-centered care."
More articles on quality:
Study: US Medicare patients treated by foreign-educated physicians more likely to survive
HPI Press Ganey now federally listed as AHRQ Patient Safety Organization
Widely used pain drugs could up risk of heart attack during respiratory illness, study shows