title: Intravascular therapy process improvement in a multihospital system: don't get stuck with substandard care.
abstract: Using the process of FOCUS PDSA (a quality improvement format), two clinical nurse specialists reviewed the delivery of intravenous care at a multihospital (4-hospital) system. The clinical nurse specialists formed a multi-facility nursing team to lead the assessment, develop a plan, implement changes, and evaluate the process. This process reflects the use of clinical nurse specialists as experts in using research-based data, national recommendations, and benchmark data to ultimately improve practice and reduce risks and overall costs. This process allows the clinical nurse specialist to be viewed as an innovator, a project manager, and a program developer in a major system. The clinical nurse specialists were selected to lead this process improvement based on their knowledge and competencies in the specific area of intravenous therapy.
authors.affiliation: Community Hospitals, Indianapolis, IN 46219, USA. peisenbe@commhospindy.org
authors.forename: Patti
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.forename: Julie D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Painter
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous / Q000451:nursing* / Q000592:standards; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems; D009720:Nurse Clinicians; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*