Nurse Efficiency

How PerfectServe increases the time nurses spend in direct patient care.

Conventional communication activities impede ability to transform care at the bedside.

According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, clinical outcomes are better and complications are fewer when nurses spend more time in direct care.

However, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “36-Hospital Time and Motion Study,” medical-surgical nurses spend only 19 percent of their time in direct patient care.

The study revealed that 21 percent of nursing time — or 86 minutes per 10-hour shift — is diverted to communication activities related to coordinating care.

Nurses waste time in telephone related activities trying to reach physicians.

Data from PerfectServe hospitals indicates that, in a 300-bed facility, nurses contact physicians approximately 15,000 times each month to coordinate care.

Conventional contact processes are highly variable, with each medical staff member employing a unique and often complex algorithm to determine exactly who to contact and, then, how that doctor should be reached at any given moment in time.

Accessing physicians requires maintaining multiple phone lists, contact instructions and call schedules — all of which must be referenced and interpreted with each physician-contact attempt.

How does PerfectServe give nurses more time for direct patient care?

PerfectServe standardizes physician-contact processes and, in doing so, eliminates waste.

With PerfectServe nurses no longer need to:

•    Keep track of physician on-call schedules.

•    Maintain lists of physician phone numbers and contact devices.

•    Interpret complex or incomplete physician contact preferences and
      instructions.

•    Rely on human memory to know how physicians want to be reached.

•    Experience handoffs to third-party answering services, switchboards and front
     office staff.

All this information is assembled and maintained in the PerfectServe network. PerfectServe automatically routes the each call appropriately.

Study proves fewer repeat calls required.

Independent research by the University of Colorado has proven that PerfectServe reduces nurse-to-physician communication cycle-times because it eliminates steps, decision points and handoffs.

The study found that nurses in the PerfectServe hospital:

•    Experienced 81% fewer repeat calls.

•    Completed 10 times more contact cycles in two minutes or less.

Moreover, PerfectServe hospitals report significant reductions in the time nurses spend on the phone coordinating care with physicians. The chart below outlines the potential impact:

TCAB Improvements Double Nurse Time at the Bedside (PDF)
An interview with IHI’s Pat Rutherford showing how to double nurse time at the bedside. More>

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 36-Hospital Time and Motion Study
June 5, 2008
A thorough analysis of how medical-surgical nurses spend their time. More>

Challenges in Healthcare Communications
July 2008
A white paper by Daniel Z. Sands, M.D., on the implications of communications breakdowns on productivity and safety. More>

The University of Colorado study on hospital-to-physician contact.
Compares the hospital-to-physician contact processes of a hospital that uses PerfectServe to three hospitals that contact physicians via conventional manual processes. More>

RESOURCES

Institute for Healthcare Improvement TCAB Program

ihi.org

Robert Wood Johnson TCAB Toolkit

rwjf.org

AONE TCAB Program

aone.org