OHA HIIN hospital leaders selected to present posters at national conference

Posted on: 2/21/18

Carla Hobbs, AllianceHealth Ponca City

Emily Poe, Okeene Municipal Hospital

Carla Hobbs, MT (ASCP), chief quality officer, AllianceHealth Ponca City, and Emily Poe, RN, quality nurse manager, Okeene Municipal Hospital, were each selected to present a storyboard poster at the 2018 AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference in Phoenix earlier this month. The storyboards highlighted success in a quality improvement project and emphasized acceleration and amplification of the project within the hospital.  

Hobbs’ storyboard described implementation of a concurrent sepsis audit program of patient records, identification of a hospital Sepsis champion/team, hospital sepsis education and outreach to local health care partners and the community, resulted in achieving 99 percent compliance with patient sepsis screening, a 56 percent increase in implementation of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign bundle treatment plans three- and six-hour bundles, and a significant decrease in patient sepsis mortality.

Poe’s storyboard described the impact of implementation of (1) a hospital sepsis education program using evidence-based practices, (2) a patient sepsis screening program, (3) development/implementation of a standardized protocol for early identification/treatment of sepsis patients, and (4) the ability to perform in-house rapid lactic acid testing, resulting in a significant increase in early sepsis identification.

Both presenters credited participation in the OHA HIIN (Hospital Improvement Innovation Network) in obtaining the educational and resources tools for these hospital quality improvement/patient safety successes. (Patrice Greenawalt)