We recently concluded our Friday Focus 4 Health Series on the topics of Reducing Avoidable Hospital Readmissions and Blood Pressure Control. If you missed it and want to access the recordings and trainings, visit the Friday Focus 4 Health page. Details below.
Reducing Avoidable Emergency Department (ED) Visits
According to the CDC, there were 131.3 million ED visits in the United States in 2020. It is estimated that 30 percent of those visits were considered avoidable or unnecessary. Reducing unnecessary ED visits should be a goal of all healthcare organizations.
When we consider ‘unnecessary’, we include visits that could have been handled in a different setting as well as visits that could have been avoided through more appropriate preventive or chronic care management. Unnecessary or avoidable Ed visits burden the health care system as they are costly and consume resources that other individuals with more acute needs may need. Healthcare organizations can take steps to better understand their population and anticipate and address reasons a person goes to the emergency department. Identifying individuals who are already, or potentially high utilizers of the ED may be a good place to start.
Our Friday Focus 4 Health Series provided an in-depth look at this topic and strategies for improvement.
- Week One: Reducing Avoidable Emergency Department Visits
- Week Two: Communication During Hand-Off’s
- Week Three: Communication Strategies
- Week Four: Infections, Falls, Medications, Success Measurement & Celebrating Successes
If you missed it and want to access the recordings and trainings, visit the Friday Focus 4 Health page.
Blood Pressure Control
Our goal of these sessions was to provide tools and information to help address blood pressure prevention and control at your facility. It is often the little things that we do that can have an impact on patient outcomes. Many times, you are already doing a lot of the right things; perhaps you just need to organize them differently or maybe incorporate one minor adaption that can make a difference. Quality improvement does not have to be a huge overhaul of your existing workflows.
Our Friday Focus 4 Health Series included information on how to improve blood pressure control for patients.
- Week One: Blood Pressure Control
- Week Two: Prevention
- Week Three: Target: BP
- Week Four: Taking a Blood Pressure Accurately
If you missed it and want to access the recordings and trainings, visit the Friday Focus 4 Health page.
Friday Focus 4 Health: April Series – Life’s Essential 8: Tools for Optimal Patient and Resident Health
Our Friday Focus 4 Health April Series will feature the Life’s Essential 8 guidelines, tools and application to improve quality and health outcomes for our patients and residents in the Dakotas.