Staff Led Initiative Improves Patient and Nurse Satisfaction

Over the past 18 months, Redington-Fairview General Hospital's TCAB Team made it their goal to improve their HCAHPS score for Nurse Responsiveness and patient satisfaction with Pain Control. After a national TCAB meeting where they learned about hourly rounding and the “Four P’s”, the team thought it made sense to try a strategy to meet the patients’ needs before they ask. The aide and the primary care nurse alternate rounding so that one or the other is in the patient’s room every hour. During the rounding process the patient is asked about pain, pleasure, potty and position (4P’s). After all the patient’s needs are met, the nurse or aide reminds the patient they will be back in one hour before they leave the room.

Effects on patient satisfaction with nurse responsiveness and pain control have been amazing! HCAHPS Nurse Responsiveness time improved from 94% to 96% and patient satisfaction with pain control improved from 52% to 75% in just one quarter. The team has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of calls bells with their new strategy – from 164 per day to less than 100. Another benefit from this staff led initiative is that the units nurse satisfaction scores increased from 3.83 to 4.08 on the question “my ideas really seem to count on this unit”.