Let’s Talk About Magnet
Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) is one of the most prestigious recognitions that a healthcare organization can attain. Magnet considers every aspect of an organization: our patient satisfaction scores, our nursing satisfaction, our patient care quality metrics, how we recognize our employees, our connections and contributions to our community, our BSN and specialty certifications, our professional governance structure, and basically anything else you can imagine. While the designation is granted by the ANCC, a nursing organization, this is not about nurses only. It takes every single Kootenai Health employee to meet and sustain the requirements to keep our Magnet designation. That includes YOU!!!
We are almost ready to submit our documentation for our FOURTH Magnet designation! The documents must be submitted by February 1st, 2021, and they are looking really good! We must keep up the excellent work we are doing, but all signs point to another excellent documentation review. What will come next is a site visit from Magnet Appraisers. They will come to Kootenai Health to talk with all of us and to find out how amazing our organization really is! We do want to make an effort to be prepared, and here are some of the examples of your work that we will be sending to Magnet to review
Transformational Leadership
Our Chief Nursing Officer, Joan Simon, MSA, BSN, RN, CENP, NEA-BC, FACHE worked with Karen Cabell, DO, MBA, Chief Physician Executive, Kimberly Webb, MBA, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Shelley Janke, BSN, RN, Director of Quality and Care Management, Kootenai Care Network, and other key stakeholders to imagine, design, and implement Comprehensive Care Integration (CCI). This strategic organization change transformed the journey that our patients make from home, to primary care, to emergency care, to inpatient stays, and back out to the community with whatever support services they might require. Our leaders knew that there was a gap in care transitions and they took revolutionary steps to make the care that our patients receive in this community more accessible, reliable, and seamless.
Structural Empowerment
During the first half of 2019, Kootenai Health saw a significant increase in catheter associated urinary track infections occurrence. This issue was brought to the attention of our Nursing Practice Sub Council by Cory Webster, MSN, RN, CIC, Infection Preventionist. A CAUTI Workgroup was created, which included Webster, several Clinical Nurses, a Nursing Education Specialist, and Amy Ward, BSN, RN, MS, CIC, Nurse Manager of Infection Prevention. Together, the CAUTI workgroup revamped the Foley Removal Protocol, sent out Clinical Update education to Med Surg units, and revised our Foley catheter policy. Since this work was completed there have been zero CAUTIs! What an incredible example of how outcomes improve when clinical staff are empowered to change policies and practice!
Exemplary Professional Practice
Kootenai Health’s Pediatric inpatient unit does not house our largest patient population. For pediatric patients and their families, however, their time at our hospital has potential to be the scariest times of their lives. Plus, pediatric patients come to many departments other than our inpatient Pediatric unit. So, Elevating Pediatric Care, a committee which includes representation from nursing, physicians, pharmacy, imaging services, speech/language pathology, respiratory care, and laboratory, set about making sure that every department in our hospital was prepared and could give excellent care to our pediatric patients. We now have Pediatric Champions throughout the hospital. Many departments created child-friendly rooms or waiting areas, departments have been equipped with toys and distraction kits, and education resources are available for anyone!
New Knowledge, Innovations, & Improvements
Have you heard about how units are using Trello? What started out as a trial with LeNS Boards and Executive Rounding has really evolved over time. All organizations struggle with keeping track of who said what to whom and when and where, etc…. By using new technology in a novel way, Kootenai has designed a way for day shift, night shift, project managers, office coordinators, local leadership, and executive leadership to stay in communication about important unit-level issues and improvement projects. Additionally, units are now tracking quality improvement data on their paper learning boards!
