Page 56 - Robeson Living Spring 2020

SeHealth improves quality measures in COPD, ER

J
By Roxana Ross

Sonja Hilburn Jason Cox Suzanne Jackson

Recently released data about Southeastern Health’s Southeastern Regional Medical Center (SRMC) highlight impressive
statistics in the areas of patient outcomes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and in emergency department
wait times.

“We’re very pleased to share these outstanding accomplishments in our quality measures,” said Vice President and SRMC
Chief Operating Officer Jason Cox. “Through collaborative efforts with providers, staff, and the community, Southeastern
Health is continuously striving to ensure that our patients receive efficient, high-quality care.”

According to a report released Jan. 1, by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), SRMC outperformed the
national rate for COPD mortality rates, and was the only hospital in the state to do so. This is the second year running that
SRMC has had that distinction. GeneralSurg

The report, which covers hospital patient visits between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2018, showed SRMC’s Risk-Standardized eon joins
Mortality Rate for COPD patients within 30 days of discharge at 6.5 percent. The national average is 8.5 percent, and the state
average is 9 percent. SeHealth

SeHealth’s Director of Care Management Suzanne Jackson said COPD patients are cared for by a physician-led
interdisciplinary team that maximizes the system’s resources for each patient.

“Everyone is working in conjunction with the discharge planners to ensure that discharge planning is appropriate and using all
the available resources, such as the pulmonary clinic, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, the clinical team, respiratory therapy,
and the primary care physician’s office,” Jackson said. “Because of the electronic health record system Epic, the team is able
to communicate from an acute and post-acute setting throughout the system. These things combine to reduce repeated COPD
admissions to the hospital.”

Another section of the CMS report showed that SRMC’s emergency department admitted patients an average of 47 minutes
faster than the national rate for “very high volume” emergency departments, which was 139 minutes. The hospital’s 92-minute
average was also significantly faster than the state rate of 140 minutes. “Very high volume” emergency departments see more
than 60,000 patients a year.

According to SeHealth’s Emergency Services Director Sonja Hilburn, SRMC’s ER saw more than 66,000 patients last year.

“Our staff works very hard to put patients front and center in everything we do,” Hilburn said. “Listening to patients’ feedback
along with staff’s relentless commitment to excellence resulted in these incredible improvements. For instance, one of the
more impactful ways we are doing this in the Emergency Department is the ‘direct bedding’ initiative, which allows staff to
take patients to any ED bed that’s open and available without delays in triage. Additionally, providers see patients and
implement protocols in our triage rooms when emergency room beds are full, to decrease wait time once a bed does become (Cont. on next page)
available.”

work
in the
highly
special
ized
enviro
nment
of the
Neona
tal
Intensi
ve
Care
Unit
(NICU SeHe
). Since
2016, alth
Occup
ational anno
Thera
pist unce
and
Inpatie s new
nt
Rehab walk-
Service
s in
Coordi
nator
Jyutika clin
Zope
and
Physic
al
Thera
pist
Willia
m
Hunt
have
been
workin
g with
full-
term
and
premat
ure
babies
at
SRMC.
Their
work is
aided
by
upgrad
es
made
in
2017
to the
unit,
which
can
care
for
babies
born
up to
10
weeks
early.

“Not a
lot of
therapi
sts go
into
the
NICU,
” Hunt
said.
“It
require
s
additio
nal
trainin
g and
mentor
ship,
and
becaus
e it’s so
special
ized, it
can be
hard
to find
people
to
mentor
you in
this
area.
We
conduc
t
evalua
tions,
develo
p
treatm
ent
plans,
and as
they
progre
ss to go
home,
we
integra
te the
family
into
that
plan.”

Kayla
White,
of
Lumbe
rton, is
a nurse
at
SRMC
who is
also a
parent
of a
child
who
went
throug
h the
NICU.
Her
son,
Harris
on,
who
turns 1
this
weeken
d, was
born
six
weeks
early
but is
now
thrivin
g.