South Nassau Communities Hospital Improves Its Cardiac Care
Monday November 2, 2009
Print This- Select Text Size:
Comments
From left, Thomas P. Cushing RN, cardiovascular information systems coordinator; Dorothy L. Veron, RN, nurse manager of cardiovascular services; and Debbie Jonason, RN, staff nurse
(Courtesy of South Nassau Communities Hospital)
advertisement
“We have an agreement with North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. As soon as we start an intervention, we call their ambulance company with the expectation they will be here in 15 minutes to transport the patient if needed,” says Dorothy L. Veron, RN, MSN, CNAA-BC, nurse manager of cardiovascular services in the Center for Cardiovascular Health. “There has been no need of such intervention since the beginning of the program in 2006.”
The center, which also performs a wide range of coronary and peripheral interventional procedures, such as balloon angioplasty, stenting, and thrombolytic therapy, also is well below the national recommended benchmark of 90 minutes in door-to-balloon time when providing balloon angioplasty in an emergency. They are consistently able to start the procedure in about 70 minutes.
In the past three years, the center has performed about 1,300 diagnostic procedures and 500 PCIs each year. Ninety-nine percent of the PCIs are done with stents, 430 of them are elective, and the rest are emergency procedures.
Both catheterization rooms can run simultaneously, and all procedures are performed by one physician with a support team of three nurses.
“All of our staff are RNs. They have undergone extensive training and keep up BLS and ACLS certifications. They all have been educated on the care of patients pre- and post-procedure, and during diagnostic or interventional catheterization,” Veron says.
In addition to the hospital-wide continuing education program, the nurses have to maintain cardiac, critical care, and cath lab specific competencies. While providing excellent medical care, the nurses also create a comfortable and friendly atmosphere to put patients at ease.
“[Since the unit is self-contained,] we admit the patient, do the procedure, and discharge them so they don’t have to go anywhere else in the hospital. If they have to stay overnight, they stay at our unit so they see the same familiar faces,” says Debbie Jonason, RN, CCRN, a staff nurse who has worked at the hospital for 11 years, the last seven of those in the cath lab.
Patients are discharged four hours after diagnostic procedures and usually the next morning after interventional procedures. The same nurses follow up with them long after they have left the unit.
“We call them back the following day, a month later, three months later to check that everything is OK and that they are following up with their doctors,” Jonason says. “We give them as much support as possible. We answer their questions and, if necessary, arrange for medication vouchers.”
The 21,000-square-foot unit receives many thank-you letters and patient satisfaction surveys also show excellent feedback from patients about the high level of care.
“We have a very high score with Health Stream, which is a third-party company that measures patient satisfaction. We consistently have one of the highest scores in the hospital overall, and score Top-Box in the category of ‘Patient is Likely to Recommend,’” says Thomas P. Cushing, RN, BSN, cardiovascular information systems coordinator, who has worked in the unit for more than two years and is the go-to person for all technology-based questions and problems. “I worked in much larger cardiac programs in the past, but I like the size of this program because we are able to care for one patient at a time.”
The hospital also recently received ICAEL certification. “This means the quality of the studies completed by our techs, as well as the physician interpretation of those studies meet superior criteria,” Veron says. “We are very proud of that accomplishment.”
The hospital plans to expand its capabilities by implementing a third cardiac catheterization laboratory, an electrophysiology laboratory, and a minor procedure room.
Tamas Horvath is a freelance writer. To comment, e-mail editorNY@nursingspectrum.com.
Reader Comments
Login
Be the first to comment!