SHM’s Project BOOST (Better Outcomes for Older Adults through Safe Transitions) is an initiative to improve practices in transition care and reduce readmission rates for hospitals across the country. The project’s toolkit, mentoring program, and national advocacy efforts have proven so successful that the program is expanding this year.
In 2008, SHM began the first round of the Project BOOST mentoring program in six pilot hospitals. The first full cycle of Project BOOST mentoring sites began in March at 24 sites. The Hospitalist will feature updates on the full cycle of Project BOOST later this year. For more information about Project BOOST, visit www.hospitalmedicine.org/BOOST or e-mail [email protected].
As a pilot site, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington has worked with mentors for the past six months. We caught up with project leader Jennifer Fells, RN, MS, to discuss the institution’s participation.
—Jennifer Fells, RN, MS, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, Bennington
Question: Why did your group choose to participate in the mentoring program?
Answer: We wanted to reduce our readmission rate, and we knew we weren’t doing a service to patients. This was also a goal of our organization overall; it’s not only a benefit to the hospital, but a larger value when the patient goes back to the community.
Q: How has the BOOST mentoring program benefited your program?
A: It helped us get organized by beginning the process and affirmed our belief that there were ways to address readmissions. The toolkit has proved to be invaluable. The mentors helped us keep on track and offered us guidance. They share the experiences of the other Project BOOST teams, and we benefit from that information.
Chapter Updates
Georgia Coastal
The chapter’s second meeting was well attended by both of the large hospitalist groups in Atlanta; two hospitalists from a rural institution also were in attendance. Leena Dutta, MD, of North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, spoke about her experience as a hospitalist and the uses of Tygacil.
Los Angeles
The chapter met Feb. 3 for dinner at Valentino’s Restaurant in Santa Monica. Twenty-five hospitalists and residents from academic and private institutions attended the meeting, which featured two presentations. The night started off with a discussion about the management of bloodstream infections, led by Anjay Rastogi, MD, of UCLA Medical Center. Robert Schultz and Craig Steinhauer of financial planning services firm NWF discussed “Navigating Through Rocky Times: A Guide to Investment and Retirement Strategies.”
Miami/South Florida
The chapter met Jan. 22, and the keynote speaker was treasurer Efren Manjarrez, MD, who gave a presentation on “Transition of Care.” He revealed data from a soon-to-be-released SHM task force paper. The presentation was well received, and the local HM programs agreed to collaborate to collect more data for future studies.
The changes in the approach to the discharge process were a surprise to us. After we developed our team, we discovered how fragmented the discharge process was throughout the entire organization. Discharges were handled over multiple disciplines, and it was fragmented by design.
For example, our documentation, discharge plans, discharge recommendations, and patient-education materials are in different parts of our documentation system.
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Q: What did you learn about your program through the initial Project BOOST step: analyze care delivery?
A: We realized that disciplines were not coordinated with one another and there was not enough time for the physician to complete the discharge plan. The process was cumbersome, awkward, and very time-consuming. We were looking to create efficiency in the information that needs to be coordinated to do those discharge orders.