Parkland Health & Hospital System says it has completed 91 percent of the items on its corrective action plan, and 95 percent are on schedule. The system plans to detail its progress to its board of managers tomorrow.
Aided by Alvarez & Marsal, Parkland developed its corrective action plan earlier this year, as required following a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services review.
Among the developments officials plan to tout at its board presentation reduced volumes in the emergency department, with the staffing of EmCare physicians in the urgent care clinic, and an education plan for employees on changes to patient safety policies and procedures.
Hospital administrators say they’re now planning to shift the focus to ensuring the sustainability of its enhancements and on monitoring the effectiveness of changes it has made.
“Every indicator, from our recent Joint Commission survey, to our improved grade in the Leapfrog safety report, to this recent report to CMS, implies that Parkland is providing a much improved, safer experience for our patients than one year ago,” said Ron Laxton, RN, Parkland’s chief implementation officer and interim chief operations officer, in a statement. “There is no doubt we have made a lot of progress and we are moving in the right direction. That said, we still have some areas in which we need to improve. We have always said that our job will not be finished until we have built a sustainable culture of accountability and continual improvement.”
Parkland says those areas include more education in radiation safety, the development and implementation of a plan for added nursing resources, and improved efforts to communicate objectives to frontline staff.
Click here for the hospital’s board of managers presentation.
